Fruits basket Fluffanutters
by myshadowspirit
Summary: The curse is broken and the Fruba cast is back! As their lives move foward it is becoming a lot more difficult then it seems. Yeah, my cousin wrote that, since I'm having issuse with summeries. Warning: Spoilers and what I like to call 'minor' OC
1. Chapter 1

An: Yes . . . A NEW STORY!!!! And FRUITS BASKET! I'd like to think I know the Frutis Basket story pretty well . . .I've only read it 15 times . . .

I didn't really know where to start at first, but my friend came up with this idea . . . Yep . . . she she's so clever.

let me know if there's any OBVIOUSE spelling and gammer errors. I'm sick right now, so . . . I'm not sure how good it is. I get loopy and emotional when I'm sick.

So many people hate Shigure.

Chapter 1

At the Estate

"I"M SORRY!" wailed a very, very sorry man. His cry could have probably been heard all over Japan, and certainly was heard by everyone in the estate.

Shigure paused mid step as he heard the voice of Ritsu Sohma and wondered why his cousin had come to the main estate. He didn't really care that Ritsu was sorry. He could really care less since the lunatic man was sorry about everything, but he was amusing to watch and Shigure found it enjoyable to torment the poor man.

One of the servants rushed to Shigure. "Shigure-san! Ritsu-san is planning to kill himself!"

Was this servant new? "Yes, yes he does that . . . Don't worry about it. I was about to ask you where he is, but I think I can manage to find him myself." Shigure found Ritsu on his knees, Mitsuru was also on her knees too, holding the frantic Ritsu's wrists as he waved his arms about.

"I'M SORRY! I HAVE NEVER DONE A MORE SINFUL CRIME AS I HAVE DONE NOW! I'M THE WORST PERSON EVER! TO THINK THAT I COULD DO THIS TO THE ONE PERSON THAT HAS EVER TRULY MADE ME HAPPY! I'M SORRY MITSURU-SAN! I MUST BE STABBED REPEATEDLY UNTIL I BLEED TO DEATH!" he cried, holding a knife that Mitsuru was trying to take away. Hmm . . . maybe Shigure should try to take that away from him, too.

"NO RITCHAN! IF YOU MUST KILL YOURSELF, YOU SURLY MUST KILL ME FIRST! I CANNOT STAND TO LIVE A LIFE WITHOUT YOU!"

"IF ANYONE SHOULD BE KILLING ANYONE, IT IS YOU TO KILL ME FOR THAT HORRIBLE THING!"

Shigure cleared his throat.

"SHIGURE-SAAAAAN!" Ritsu sobbed onto the floor. "I HAVE COMMITTED A HORRIBLE CRIME!!!"

"SHIGURE-SAN?!" Mitsuru grabbed the knife from Ritsu's hand and brandished it at Shigure. "STAY AWAY FROM ME YOU HORRIBLE MONSTER!"

"Welcome to the main estate," Shigure said happily. "Now Ritchan . . . what brings you and the _lovely_ Mii-chan here."

Mitsuru glared at Shigure as Ritsu cried, "THE HORRIBLE SIN THAT I HAVE COMMITTED HAS BROUGHT ME TO THE MAIN ESTATE! THERE IS NO PUNISHMENT WITH ENOUGH SUFFERING TO SERVE JUSTICE!"

"Yeah . . ."

"We've come to see the head of the family," said Mitsuru indifferently.

"For what?"

"I'M SORRY!" Ritsu started again. "I PUT SHAME ON THE WHOLE FAMILY! I PUT SHAME TO MITSURU-SAN! I PUT SHAME ON THE WORLD! I'M SORRY MITSURU-SAN! I"M SORRY FOR FERTILIZING YOU!"

"What!?" Shigure cried out in surprise. Ritsu was squirming on the floor as if he was having a seizure.

"We've come to ask the head of the family's blessing for our marriage," Mitsuru said much more calm then Ritsu.

"You're getting married?" Shigure asked, still in shock as he watched the spasmodic Ritsu and trying to figure out how Ritsu could possibly have fathered a child.

"Well we kind to have to now!" Mitsuru said angrily.

"HOW CAN A CHILD EVER RESPECT A FATHER LIKE ME! I WILL BE AN EMBARRASSMENT TO MY CHILD FOR THE REST OF MY CHILD'S LIFE! I'M SORRY CHILD!"

"Ritchan!" said Mitsuru. "Your child will love you as mush as I do!"

"Your words are too kind . . . " whimpered Ritsu, his face still pressed to the floor. "I do not deserve such words . . ."

"How on earth . . ." Shigure started.

"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!" cried out Ritsu.

"As I was saying, how on earth . . . Are you sure Ritsu's the father?"

"Yes!" Mitsu said even more angrily.

"So it actually-"

"_YES! _Yes! Yes! We did not come here to speak with you!" Ritsu was crying in the background.

"Right . . . You came here to see Akito . . ." he winced.

"Shigure-san," said a servant, bowing as she entered the room. "Akito-san, will not come out of her room and requests your presence at once."

"Thank you. I'll be there later."

"But the head of the family says it's of the upmost importance . . ."

Shigure ignored her. "As you can see," he said to the couple. "Akito will not see you. But you're lucky. I'm still here!" He grinned at Mitsuru who glared at him with more power then before.

"_You_ are not the head of the family!"

"If I married Akito I would be, so I'm pretty close."

Mitsuru blinked at that statement. Ritsu had told her before that Akito was actually female . . . soon after he explained that he himself was male- Ritsu's gender was questionable to her when they first met because of his fairness and his habit of cross dressing- but thinking that _Shigure_ of all people would marry Akito . . . ? Maybe he was kidding just to play with her mind. . . . As he often did. The thought of Shigure being the Head of the Family was horrifying!

"Yes, Yes, So . . . as Head of the Family substitute . . . I deny your request for my blessing."

Ritsu screeched at this news and threw his arms around Mitsu, sobbing into her shoulder and shaking her.

Shigure burst into laughter and Mitsu glared at him as she was gently shook by Ritsu.

"Oh, this is hysterical! I can't wait to tell Hatori . . . and Aya! Oh, Aya will be ecstatic!"

"Would you remove yourself from us?!" cried out Mitsu, who was now trying to calm down Ritsu.

"Mit-chan dear, have you ever _met_ Akito before?"

"I've seen him-I mean her before."

Shigure let out a dry laugh. "Oh Mitsu . . . so young and naive."

"Don't you have to go somewhere?" asked Mitsu, trying to get rid of him.

"Alas . . . since I've retired as a writer I have nothing to do with all my time!"

The servant cleared her throat. "Um, Shigure-san, Akito-san . . ."

Shigure sighed. "Except for maybe that . . ."

Mitsu raised an eyebrow, wondering why he wouldn't just leave and let Ritsu and her have their peace.

"Ok, ok. I'll talk to Akito and ask her to speak to the two of you . . . but I can't make any promises."

"A promise from you means nothing anyway," Mitsu said, relieved that he was about to go.

Shigure bowed. "Well. This experience was . . . enjoyable." He stifled a giggle. "I hope to see you soon." He turned to go, but Ritsu scrambled over to him on his knees, grabbing his kimono.

"OH SHIGURE-SAN! YOU ARE SO KIND! I DON'T DESERVE THIS! THERE MUST BE SOMETHING I CAN DO THAT MIGHT BE REPAYMENT! EVEN THOUGH NOTHING I COULD EVER DO WOULD EVER REPAY YOUR KINDNESS!" Ritsu sobbed.

"Ritchan!" Mitsu cried. "Please, you are a hundred-time better man then Shigure is!" Mitsu put her arms around Ritsu and pulled him away, letting Shigure leave the room.

As Shigure walked slowly to Akito, he imagined the lovely welcoming he would get.

"HOW COME IT TOOK SO LONG FOR YOU TO GET HERE?!" she would scream. "DIDN'T THE SERVANT TELL YOU HOW IMPORTANT THIS IS!? WHAT COULD YOU POSSIBLY BE DOING THAT WAS MORE IMPORTANT! YOU LAZY BASTARD! YOU CARE MORE ABOUT YOURSELF THEN ME! I HATE YOU!" and so on . . . Yep, those sweet words that warmed his heart so. He placed his hand over his chest as he thought that.

He arrived at their room, for that was where Akito usually stayed, though she had been trying to get out more, and open the door.

He awaited for the lovely screaming to start . . . but it didn't. He looked around the room and it was dark, smelling musty.

"Akitooo!" He sang.

Akito was a lump under the covers in bed, a flash of black hair on the pillow.

"The room could use a little air . . ." He opened a window and unshaded the blinds. Akito moved more into the blankets when the light touched her. "You do know it's afternoon, right?" He knelt next to the bed, giving her a poke in the head with his finger. He expected to be shower with angry screams, but to his disappointment, Akito only groaned. "Akito?"

Akito moved her face to see Shigure's. "Shigure . . . I don't feel well . . . I think . . . I think my time is short. The same thing happened to my father when he was around my age . . ." Tears started to roll down her cheeks. "And we don't even have an heir!"

Shigure stared at her thoughtfully, trying not to laugh. "I see . . . so this is important."

Akito brought her arms over her face, a sob escaping her body.

"Now my dear, you mustn't worry . . . I'm sure you'll get better . . ."

"I'm DYING! Shigure, I know your mind is incapable of comprehending anything that is serious, but there is nothing that will make me better! I had a doctor check on me! There is nothing! I have less then a year, he says!"

"Really . . . is this doctor Hatori?"

Akito ignored him. "Time is short. We need an heir now, Shigure!"

Shigure then _failed_ to keep himself laughing. "Oh Akito . . . you are so funny . . ."

Akito gave him a dirty look.

"Akito . . . you don't want some kid running around here. You can barely take care of yourself!"

Akito sat up from bed. "IT'S NOT LIKE I WANT ONE NOW! IM DYING! WE NEED TO CONTINUE THE LINE!"

"Ha, ha, ha . . ." Shigure put his hand on Akito's shoulder. " . . . No."

"Yes!"

"Akito . . . I think you are overreacting . . ."

"I'M NOT OVERREACTING!" She threw a tissue box that was on the bed stand at him, then started coughing. With her energy spent, she slipped back into the covers.

"Oh, I was supposed to tell you that Ritsu and Mitsuru wish to have your blessing to get married." He didn't mention Mitsuru being pregnant . . . not when Akito was on this train of thought.

"What do I care what they do with their lives?" Akito muttered into her pillow.

"They would really like to see you . . ."

"I do not feel well! Maybe on another day . . . when I feel better."

"So you will be cured from this . . . sickness?"

"I'll get _better_, not cured! Go away! I don't want to look at you anymore."

"If that's what you want . . ." He got up slowly, giving her time to change her mind. "I'll just have to deal with them myself. . . ."

"Good."

"Then talk to Hatori. He must know all about your 'condition'."

Akito pushed herself from the bed to glare at Shigure. "Hatori doesn't know!"

"Now why wouldn't he? He's our doctor, isn't he?"

"I went to another doctor."

"Why?"

Akito pulled her legs out of bed. "Fine, I'll go see those idiots, if you stop asking these unbearable questions!"

"Unbearable?"

"Do you enjoy talking about your death?!" she went into another coughing fit as she went to her closet to get something warmer to wear.

"Don't push yourself," Shigure said, his hands folded in his sleeves.

When Akito was done, she hobbled over to the door. Shigure noticed that Akito looked paler then usual, and her hair was flimsy and oily. She was definitely not healthy, but Shigure didn't believe she was nearly as bad as she believed. That, and she probably hadn't bathed that day.

They walked down the hall together, Akito stomping besides him.

"Here we are!" Shigure announced as they walked into the room where Ritsu and Mitsuru were waiting. Akito flopped down onto a pillow, her long sleeves over her face, so that only her dark eyes could glare out into the world.

"Ritsu, would you like to introduce your . . . fiance?"

"Yes . . ." Ritsu whimpered. "This is . . . This is . . . Mitsuru . . . PLEASE REGARD HER KINDLY!"

"For the love of . . ." Akito moved her large sleeves over her ears.

"I'm so sorry," said Mitsuru. "If you don't mind me saying, you look terrible. Maybe you should go back to bed. We're sorry for disturbing you."

"WE DISTURBED YOU!" Ritsu cried, as if he just realized this.

"You can say that again . . ." Shigure muttered.

"I'M SORRY! YOU ARE NOT WELL! YOU SHOULD BE SLEEPING! YOU CAN'T GET WELL WITHOUT REST! YOU'LL BE SICK FOREVER! YOU MIGHT EVEN DIE!"

Akito gave Shigure a flat glare. "At least that fool believes me . . . What is it that you want?"

"We wish to accept your blessing in our marriage," Mitsuru said bowing, for she didn't think Ritsu would be able to say it. "And to personally invite you to our wedding."

Akito got up. "Fine! You have my blessing!" Then she stomped out of the room.

Mitsuru stared after her, afraid that she might have upset her in some way. Ritsu wept into his hands.

"Well . . ." Shigure said. "I'm sure Akito would _love_ to go to your wedding, as for a definite answer . . . we'll get back to you on that."

Shigure followed Akito to their room. Akito was back on the bed, and Shigure took a seat on the floor, sitting cross legged watching her. He hummed a turn, softly so not to be too disturbing . . . but he wasn't leaving till Akito told him what was going on.

Akito opened her eyes and watched him, sleepily. Sprawled out on the bed like that, Shigure couldn't help thinking how beautiful she was, even when she was sick.

"Shigure . . ." Akito started. Here it comes . . . "You do realize how important it is to carry out my line? Once it dies out, there will be dispute in who gets the family money."

"Akito . . . can't we like . . . not worry about that right now? You're only 22. It's not like you'll getting too old . . ."

"_Shigure!_" She snapped. "Stop refusing to see the fact that I'm dying!"

"Why did you see a different doctor?"

Akito hesitated. "I didn't want Hatori to know . . . I don't want the rest of the family to know either. Not till after the baby is born."

Shigure gave Akito a long look. "Ok."

"So you believe me? You'll agree to have the child?"

"Not in the slightest," laughed Shigure. "I think you're making it all up!"

"WHY THE HELL WOULD I BE MAKING IT UP!?" she screamed, throwing a pillow at him.

"Why you do a lot of things is a mystery . . . though if I think about it hard enough, I can usually figure it out."

"I'M NOT LYING!" Akito sobbed, looking at Shigure pleadingly. Shigure only stared at her back. "BELIEVE ME!"

He only stared.

Akito let out a cry, "GET OUT!" she said, pointing at the door. Shigure did so obediently.

* * *

"And that's what happened," sighed Shigure. "As you can see, none of this could possibly be my fault!"

"Hmm . . ." Hatori took a sip of his tea and stared hard at Shigure.

"I was behaving so well today, too. Akito was fine this morning. Then she went out. . . . Apparently to see that doctor . . . and next thing I know she's dying!"

"Well I've gotten a notice saying Akito doesn't wish to see me anymore."

Shigure gapped at Hatori. " No . . . she fired you? Can she do that?! What would you do without a job!? I know I can live without a job, but you Tori-kun . . ."

"She didn't fire me," Hatori interrupted in annoyance. "She just doesn't want me to examine her any longer."

"Hmm . . . I wonder if I should be worried about this new doctor . . . Will you defend me if I have to kill him?" Shigure asked with a grin.

"No," Hatori said seriously.

"This is all very peculiar . . ."

"You are sure that Akito isn't actually dying, right Shigure."

Shigure laughed and raised a hand. "She's the queen of drama queens. I'm sure she's perfectly fine!"

Hatori raised an eyebrow. "You are completely sure."

"Yes," Shigure said seriously. "That's enough about my problems like talk about your's!"

"My problems?" Hatori asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, yes."

"What problems are those?"

Shigure laughed. "Oh Hatori, you can't deny it. You obviously have problems!"

Hatori glared at him. "You are four seconds away from me shoving you out of my house."

"Ok, Ok I'll tell you since you seem to be too ignorant to notice your problem. I will try to explain it to you. Why on earth have you not called Mayu in over a month?"

"I have had no need to call Shiraki-san . . . and I doubt she is any of your business."

"Oh, come on Tori-kun . . ." Shigure pouted. "What's the matter?"

"She and me, are merely friends. There's nothing to get worked up over."

"Hatori . . . are you lying to me?" Shigure put a hand over his heart. "You have never lied to me before!" Shigure threw his arms over the table they sat at, as if he would sob. "Tori-kuuuun!"

"That's it. You're out."

"Wait! I almost forgot to tell you something!"

Hatori gave him a flat look, waiting for him to continue.

"I'm sure you'll find out eventually anyway, but I found out the most fascinating news about Ritchan and Mii-chan!"

"When are you going to leave that poor couple alone?"

Shigure laughed. "Well the two of them are getting married!"

"Hmm . . ." Hatori took another sip of his tea. "Well, that's a surprise. Ritsu must be gaining more confidence."

"Oh, that's not the best part. Do you know _why_ they are getting married?"

Hatori didn't answer.

"Ritchan got Mii-chan pregnant!"

Hatori hid his surprise well, only lifting one eyebrow as Shigure sprawled on the table, laughing hysterically. Eventually, Shigure sobered up. "Can you imagine it?"

"I don't think it's polite 'imaging' other people's intimate relationships."

"Oh Hatori . . . you always make me feel as if I'm the lowest of beings . . ."

"Because you are," Hatori said simply. He looked at the clock. "I have to leave soon."

"To do what? Call up Mayu-chan?" asked Shigure with a sly grin.

"No. I have work to do."

Shigure sighed again. "Your life seems so boring! Work, work, work! We should get out some time. We can bring Aya and Mine! . . . and Mayu-chan!"

"I'm sorry to tell you . . . that Mayu has told me that she hates you with a serious passion."

"Yes . . . so many women do . . . she must still have left over feelings for me from when dated as those years ago!"

Hatori gave him a long look. "Why she ever dated you in the first place, is beyond me."

"It is a mystery, isn't it. Maybe you should ask her about it."

"It's none of my business." Hatori stood up and Shigure did the same.

"Well, I guess I see you tomorrow. Tomorrow . . ." Shigure thought about that with joy. "Ever since I moved back into the estate, I get to see you so much more often!"

"I know . . . I can hardly contain my excitement," Hatori said in a monotone voice.

Shigure laughed and left.

* * *

Shigure slid the door open slowly, as so not to wake Akito. He thought she was asleep in the bed, but it turned out to just be a mound of blankets.

"Where have you been?" Akito croaked. Shigure found her in the corner of the dark room, curled up in her robes, and glaring at him. The little light that came from the moon, made her black eyes glint menacingly.

"Akito! Why on earth are you on the floor?!"

Akito got up, ignoring the question. "Where have you been?!"

"I was at Hatori's."

Akito's expression turned blank for a moment, before she blinked. "This whole time?!"

"Well, obviously not, for Ha'ri is a very busy man. I wasn't only there for about a half an hour." Shigure had this habit of always saying the wrong thing . . . He'd say things he didn't mean, just to make the other person angry and at times when his best bet was to lie, he decided to tell the truth. Another thing is, Shigure didn't do this on accident, he did it because he found it amusing.

"THEN WHERE ELSE DID YOU GO?!"

"Um . . . shopping?"

"Why would you go shopping for?! You've never gone shopping in your life!"

"You're right . . . I don't much care for shopping . . ." Shigure said, putting a finger to his lips.

"You were drinking with those pigs at the bar again!"

"Oh, you caught me. Isn't funny how neither of us can remember their names. Pigs . . . that's a good one. Though I'm starting to wonder if they are actually the same people every time . . . I think-this is my theory-that every night, the 'Pigs' are _different_ people, but I can never be sure, because their faces are always such a blur . . ."

" . . . What the hell are you talking about?! Shigure, you have to be more responsible, especially when I'm gone and you'll have to raise the child by yourself."

"Child, what?"

"The HEIR!"

"Oh . . . Akito . . . I'm going to be quite clear with you. No."

"WE WILL HAVE ONE!"

"Akito, you are aware, that without my involvement, you can't win in this?"

"You will do as you're told!" she cried.

"Um . . . no thank you."

"YOU WILL AGREE TO HAVE THIS CHILD! I ORDER YOU AS HEAD OF THE FAMILY!"

"Nope," Shigure said with a smile.

She screamed and threw a vase at him that sat by the window. Shigure barely dodged it, the glass shattering and the red flowers falling limply on the ground. "GET OUT THEN!"

Shigure hastily left the room, afraid Akito may find something worse to throw at him, and Akito locked the door behind him.

She collapsed on the bed with a sob that was cut off by a cough.


	2. Chapter 2

An: Ok . . . Only my friends have reviewed me, which means . . . my crummy title and summery is turning any one on . . . I've changed it to an equailly crummy title and sumery. If any one has an idea for either, PLEASE TELL ME. I have nothing.

Here's the second chapter . . . I'm not sure how well my grammor check was . . . probably pretty bad, but I haven't seen Casey in a while so she can't fix it!

Chapter 2

First Day of School

The Moge theme song whistled through the air. It was loud and high pitch, and no one in the world could have ever slept through it. Momiji lifted his blond head, looking at his night stand for his cell phone. Accidently, he had lost the phone in his bed, and after some searching through the sheets, he found it and turned off the alarm. He sat there cross-legged on the bed, staring at the phone, trying to remember the importance of the day.

"It's the first day of school!" he cried out excitedly. Momiji had a tendency to talk to himself, since it was awfully lonely in the big house he lived in. There was only him, the servants and his stuffed animals . . .

His smile faded away and he frowned at blue elephant sitting on his bed. "Yes, I know it's also the first day of school with out Tohru, but you don't see that getting _me_ down. You said you never like her much anyway, right Mr. Rabbit?" He looked to his yellow rabbit "Yep . . . Mr. Rabbit and me both clearly remember saying you didn't like her. Why do you have to be so stubborn? You're just like Kyo! Now . . . let's get dressed!"

He found his school uniform and got dressed and looked at himself in the mirror. "Black is so not my color . . ." he sighed. "I told you Elephant, the other uniform doesn't fit me anymore! Yes, it did look nice didn't it. Oh well, this one will have to do."

Once he was dressed, he headed for the kitchen where a bowl of Fruit Loops was already there, waiting for him.

"Oh thank you!" he said to one of the servants that was watching him, what looked like tears in her eye. Momiji's smile faded. "What's the matter?"

The maid put a hand over her mouth. "Oh it's nothing. It's just . . . I remember your very first day of school . . . Kindergarten You were such a small boy. We still needed to put telephone books on the chair for you to reach the table! You were eating the same cereal too!"

Momiji smiled and sat down, not really sure what to say to that. He took a bite of his cereal. "I do like this cereal," he said. . . .

"But now you're so much taller . . . you become such a handsome boy . . . I think I might cry!" The servant scurried away, covering her face with her hands.

Momij lifted his spoon and looked at his warped reflection on it. It wasn't like he changed that much, right?" he made faces of himself in the spoon. So he was a bit taller . . . and his head didn't seem as big . . . his voice had gotten a little deeper. Appearance wasn't everything.

He sighed and munched on his cereal.

Though a small part of him wished he had grown up just a tad sooner. Like . . . maybe just before Highschool . . .when Tohru was still around. Maybe Tohru would have seen him differently.

But then again, probably nothing would have changed.

Tohru saw Kyo first.

That was it.

And now that it seemed that Momiji had finally hit puberty, he didn't want it to happen. It was like everything was different now. He was different now.

He scolded himself for thinking about things that were so depressing. He still had one more year of Highschool left, and even though Tohru wouldn't be there anymore, Haru would! And Kisa would be starting Highschool this year too!

Yeah, things were going to be fine! He took another spoonful of cereal.

* * *

The sound of a guitar rolled through the air, but the volume was on low, and Rin was only vaguely aware of the beat of a drum in the background.

Five more minutes . . .

Five more minutes till what? At first she thought she wanted five more minutes to sleep, for what other reason would you want five more minutes when you were sleepy? But she vaguely remembered that she had been saying, 'five more minutes' in her head for a long while now. Way longer then five minutes. How long had that alarm been going on? Why did she have to get up so early? She didn't have to go to work this morning . . . five minutes till she did what? Wake up? Or was it something else?

She was warm, and she didn't want to move, but she turned her head and forced her eyes open to look at the green glowing numbers of the clock.

6:13

Man, that was early . . .

That wasn't her clock . . .

Haru tightened his arms around her, and made a little noise.

Oh . . . that's right. She was in Haru's room. She closed her eyes again, and buried her nose into his chest.

Wait . . .

She didn't have to get up, but Haru did. Haru had school today! Shit! Wasn't she suppose to leave early last night, so that Haru could go to bed early?! Why was she still here?!

Five more minutes, she had told herself . . .

She tried to push herself up, which was more difficult with Haru's heavy arms around her. She dangled her face over his, her black hair tickling his cheek.

"Haru . . ." She cried in a loud whisper. "Haru wake up! You have to go to school!" She got no reaction from him. She didn't want to be too loud . . . Haru's parents didn't know that she was still here. . . it would be bad if they heard her.

She stared at Haru's blank face, his mouth slightly open. "Haru . . ." she said a little annoyed now, patting his cheek. "Really, wake up!"

Suddenly, she felt a hand on the back of her head pull her down to Haru's mouth and he kissed her deeply.

Now . . . this was familiar . . .

---------------------------------------------Flashback------------------------------------------------

Haru and Rin sat on the couch watching TV. "I should go," Rin said.

"Yeah . . ." replied Haru.

"You have to get up early tomorrow for school . . ."

"Yep."

"I don't think your mom knows I'm still here . . ."

"Nope," Haru said with a sly grin on his face.

"I'm kinda afraid to use the front door."

"You hate doors anyway."

"True . . ." Rin tended to enter Haru's house through Haru's bedroom window most of the time anyway. "Want to walk me to the window, then?"

"I guess." Before they went to Haru's room, they stopped at the bathroom where Haru brushed his teeth. And then in Haru's room, Rin helped him put his book bag together. They slowly started to run out of things to do and Rin finally convinced Haru to get into the bed and she opened the window, giving him one last look.

"Wait . . ." he said, looking at her with his deep brown eyes. "Don't I get a goodnight kiss?"

She smiled. "How could I forget?"

She bent over his face, and he put a hand on the back of her head to pull her to his mouth.

--------------------------------------End Flashback--------------------------------------------------

Opps . .

Haru rolled over, so that he was on top with out breaking off the kiss.

_Well, at least he's awake . . . _she thought, but once he was done, his arms wrapped around her, and his face pressed against her neck, she felt him fall back to sleep. "Haru!" she hissed. She scrambled from underneath him and hopped off the bed. "Haru!" she cried out again, giving the bed a kick. Haru laid there like a lump. She started to go around the room in a panic, finding Haru's uniform, and throwing it on the bed, while trying to find her shoes at the same time. Haru had to shower too . . . and eat breakfast! What time was it?! What if he was late because of her?! Though .. . If he did become late, more then half of this was his fault.

6:20

Ahh!

She grabbed Haru's arms and with all her strength, yanked him out of the bed. Haru stumbled, but somehow got his feet underneath him. "I'm up . . ." he muttered, but he said it as if he didn't know how that happened. He looked around with his eyes squinted together. "Where are we?"

"Haru," she said, not sure if he was kidding or not. "You have to go to school today, remember?"

"Mm-hmm . . ." He rested his head against her and closed his eyes.

"I'm going to leave now, ok? Don't fall back to sleep." She started to leave, but Haru put his arms around her waist.

"Wait . . ." he breathed. "Stay for breakfast . . . please . . ."

"Haru . . ." He held her tightly. It was really hard to say no to him. "Ok . . . but how about _I_ make _you_ breakfast, while you take a shower. That way will save time."

"You don't have to go to the trouble to make me breakfast when you're staying at my house . . ."

"But I'm not supposed to be here in the first place! So those rules don't apply anymore." She pushed him out of the room and dragged him to the bathroom. "Now Bathe. You stink. I feel like your mother!"

Before she could close the door, Haru pulled her into another kiss. Rin only half resisted before giving up, tracing her finger through Haru's short black hair.

He kissed her cheek then her neck, then her shoulder, then her arm. "Haru," she giggle. "Stop it already. What if you're mom wakes up?" She started to close the door, but Haru still had her arm. He gave her one last kiss on the hand, their eyes locking, before he released her and she closed the door.

She rolled her eyes. Ok . . . breakfast.

She went to the kitchen and turned on the stove. She'd make an omelet. She wondered if that maybe . .. someday in the future, everyday would be like this. Haru only had one more year of school left. Maybe after that, they'd wake up together and she'd make him breakfast while he got ready for work.

It was a very girlish and stupid thought and she kicked herself in her mind for even thinking like that. Anyway, it was more likely that Haru would make breakfast for her while she got ready for work. Seeing Haru with a job was hard . . . certainly not an office job with his spiky black and white hair.

She flipped the omelet. They'd think of something.

By the time she was done, set the table and pour a cup of orange juice, Haru came into the kitchen, still fussing with his hair. He stopped when he saw Rin's set up on the table. "Man, now I feel really guilty."

"Don't, just eat it before it gets cold."

"Aren't you going to have anything?"

"I'm not hungry."

"We'll share it," he said with a smile.

"Really Haru. I'll probably make myself sick."

"You don't like eggs?" he asked as he sat down, Rin finding herself sitting next to him.

"Not really," she said.

He cut a piece and held it up with his fork. She stared at it flatly. He wiggled his eyebrows at her, while some how keeping a straight face. It made Rin laugh and she let Haru place the piece gently into her mouth.

"It's alright," she confessed.

"I worked very hard on it."

She kissed him lightly on the lips.

They shared the omelet together for a while until they heard a door open.

Both of their eyes went wide.

"Is that one of your parents?!" Rin cried out in a panicked whisper.

"Maybe . . ."

"What are they doing up this early?!"

Haru only shrugged as the two scrambled up, trying to find a place for Rin to go. They tip toed out of the kitchen and as Haru looked up the stairs, he could see his mother tiredly tie her robe together, her eyes still close.

They went into the living room, Rin pressing her back against the wall, to avoid being seen, and Haru stood over her protectively. They heard his mother go into the bathroom and close the door. He turned to Rin. "You're leaveing?"

"I'm leaving," she said, but Haru was in her way and he had yet to move.

"I'm sorry . . . you really should hit me when I do something stupid." He'd been saying that ever since they had gotten back together. It always reminded her of the time when she had mercilessly smacked him for the time he had kissed her in front of Yuki.

'Hit me if I do something stupid,' he would say . . . but most of the times, she just wanted to be stupid with him.

Haru gave her a long kiss. They could hear his mother get out of the bathroom, and make her way down the hall. She had to leave now. As his mother got closer, his mouth moved faster with hers as if that would keep her away. Faster, and faster . . .

Finally he broke away, and Rin gave him a half hearted slap on the shoulder.

He grinned. "You should go," he whispered. And she slipped out into the foyer, with out her shoes, since she had left those in Haru's room, and went outside.

"Haru?" his mother asked in surprised as she came down the stairs. "You're actually up."

"Yep . . ." was all he said.

"Is something wrong? What were you doing?"

"Just letting a ladybug outside."

His mother stared at him for a moment. "Oh right . . ." She went into the kitchen. "Did you already eat?"

"Yeah . . ."

"Really?" She look around to see the remains of his breakfast. "So . . . how have you been doing?"

Haru narrowed his eyes at her in confusion. She wasn't acting normal. "Good,"

"That's good . . ." she said as she started to make some coffee. "You seem to be behaving well. You haven't broken anything recently?"

"I-I don't think so . . ." He had to think about it. He hadn't turned black for over a year now, not since he almost killed Akito . . . and his mother didn't know about that. Good thing too.

"School starts today. You get a clean slate. Maybe you'll do better this year . . ."

Haru gave a half hearted thumbs up. "I should go do that." He went upstairs to get his book bag, but his mother stopped him. "Haru . . ." He stood at the bottom step. "I want you to try really hard this year. It's your last year to prove yourself, then you have to survive in the real world. That means you have to get your head out of the clouds and start thinking."

"Yeah," he said and he continued up the stairs to grab his book bag and Rin's shoes. Then he went back down, gave his mom a short nod and left.

Rin met Haru outside, her arms crossed with a pissed off expression on her face. "My socks are soaked," she said.

Haru handed her her shoes.

"Did she know I was there?"

"No."

"Why was she up so early?"

"I think she wanted to talk about my future . . . or something. I kinda left. She says my head's in the clouds."

"She wouldn't have been happy if she caught me."

"She would have been _pissed_ if she found you," Haru laughed.

"Yes, what we did was stupid. We should stop, especially since you have school now."

Haru looked at her for a long uncomfortable moment.

"It's for your own good," she said, but she knew she was lying. This would probably happen multiply times in the future for they've been playing this game for years.

And now, since the curse was broken, if they did get caught it wouldn't be that big of a deal, though sometimes she was glad she didn't have parents . . . sometimes.

Hare was still looking at her, as if she had said something hurtful to him. She avoided looking at him. He wasn't going to guilt trip her into doing anything.

He pulled her into his arms, and pressed his face into her neck. "But you have to come back . . . I need to make you an omelet. I'll go crazy."

"What was wrong with my omelet?"

"I didn't make it"

Haru was so weird sometimes. She pretended to be angry for a moment longer, before grabbing his arm and pulling him away. "Haru, what if your mom was watching us out the window!?" They ran away, hand in hand, laughing until they were out of site of the house.

"I have to meet Momiji," Haru said

"Oh crap!" Rin said suddenly.

"What?"

"I forgot to do something yesterday!"

"Oh . . ." Guilt clearly evident in his voice,

"It's not your fault."

"What was it?"

She smiled. "It's a surprise." She took his hand and kissed it before scampering away, not allowing Haru anytime to respond. He stared after her, feeling a little lonely.

He should go to school.

That was always fun . . .

* * *

She looked at her reflection in absolute horror . . . She had to have put this on wrong!

She pulled uselessly on her navy blue skirt. There was no way that this thing was this short. It was a _school_ uniform. A _school_ should have certain standards for their uniform! And she was forced to see her ugly white legs. She had enough issues with her face to add that into the mix. Oh, this was going to be horrible. . . .

She'll just concentrate on school work. Yes, ignore everyone else. Who cared what they thought. It was more important to make a good impression on the teachers instead of the students.

Right . . .

She gulped, her freckled face pink from being nervous.

And maybe everyone would just ignore her. They did usually at her last school . . . usually.

But what did it matter? Grades mattered. The peers didn't.

She went through her back pack and check list for the 50th time that morning. She had gotten ready too early and had all this extra time. She was now only waiting for the ticking clock, slowly . . .

"OH MY GOSH! FIST DAY OF YOUR LAST YEAR!" Her mother cried, jumping out of no where and flashing away on a camera.

She screamed in horror as she realized there were now hideous pictures of her in an indecent skirt.

"Oh come down, Maiko."

"Stop that!" She took the camera away from her mother.

"But I'm your mother . .. If mothers can't take pictures of there babies they die!" She pretended to swoon.

Maiko walked out of the house red faced, stuffing the camera into her bag. She needed to escape her embarrassing mother before she found another camera. "I LOVE YOU TOO, HONEY!" He mother called out the window, the whole world able to hear her. Maiko looked around fearful someone had heard, but she seemed to be alone. Ok . . . just get to school . . . once there . . .

. . . things could only get worse!

* * *

"Haru!" Haru blinked out of his thoughts and turned his head to his name. Momiji was waving to him with a big smile on his face. Kisa stood beside him, looking a little nervous, but her face lit up a little when she saw Haru. "Did you get lost? We only live a short distance away!"

"Sorry . . . I didn't realize I was walking so slow." Once he was close enough Kisa gave him a warm hug. He patted her on the head. "You ready?"

"I guess as much as I'll ever be . . ." she said quietly. Haru gave her a reassuring smile.

"Come on let's go! We're gonna be late!" Momiji cried, practically jumping up and down.

They walked to school together, Momiji with a bounce in his step as usual, and Haru the same as he always was, letting Kisa hold his hand.

_See, _Momiji thought,_ nothing has changed that bad_. This is how they always went to school, then once there they could . . . wait . . . not they couldn't. Tohru and the others weren't there anymore, and as much as Momiji told himself it would be alright, he couldn't help feel his good mood suddenly die and the smile fall away from his face.

Haru stopped walking, and Momiji stopped too, unaware he was doing so. When he finally realized they weren't walking anymore, he looked up to see the school looming over them.

"There it is . . ." Momiji sighed.

"Yep," answered Haru.

After another moment of staring, Momiji asked, "Are you going in?"

"I was thinking about skipping . . . But I have a feeling Rin would get mad."

"And it's the first day. You can't skip the first day!"

"I guess not."

More staring.

"We should take Kisa inside," Haru said

"Yes!" Momiji smiled at her. "If you have any questions where things are, you can ask us!"

Kisa smiled shyly. "Thank you . . ."

They walked into the school together.

* * *

She was having trouble breathing as she came in sight of the building. Other students walked around her, hardly giving her a second glance. Good .. . That was good.

But she was becoming increasingly more nervous and tried to use her book bag to cover her legs with. As she looked at other girls, she could see that not all of them had such short skirts. Some of them went down to their knees . . .

WHAT?!

How come their skirts weren't as short?! Had she somehow gotten the wrong uniform?! Or was it a choice and she had chosen this one by accident? What would people think if they thought she _chose _to where this?! She didn't want that kind of impression! Also it didn't help the fact that she wasn't at all pretty to begin with.

She felt like she was going to cry.

She took the slip of paper that had the number of her home room class. She had to go there first. Her vision blurred from the threatening tears in her eyes. She pushed her fingers underneath her glasses in a poor attempt to try to see.

But first she had to find her shoe locker . . .

She followed the rest of the kids into the building. There was a sudden shriek and she turned around to see where it was coming from.

A girl had crashed to her knees, her hands covering her face as she sobbed. He friends tried to get her to stand up again, but it didn't seem to be working.

"Get a hold of yourself, Mio! You know the Prince has graduated!"

"I know!" The girl sobbed. "But being here and knowing he'll never be here again is almost unbearable!"

Maiko had no idea what they were talking about, but was relieved to see it had nothing to do with her, thought the site was strange to her. The girl had crashed to her knees right in the door way, blocking traffic.

One girl, with dark hair, practically had to jump over the fallen girl to get through. She muttered, "For the love of. . ." as she stomped away, her face beat red.

Maiko watch the dark hair pass who then turned her glare to her. "What are you looking at me for?"

"I-I'm sorry!" Maiko squeaked. The girl threw her shoes into her locker angrily, before shoving her feet into the school shoes and stomping down the hall.

Five seconds, and she already had somebody hate her . . . She knew this would happen. She didn't even know what she had done this time!

She bit her lip as she walked down the hall in misery, half paying attention to the numbers on the door. She didn't know how long she had been walking, only aware of how much this day seemed to suck.

Then the bell rang.

She looked around in a panic and noticed there was no one in the halls anymore. He face turned red as she realized she was late. Well Maybe the teacher will give her sympathy for being new.

She walked down the hall fast, scanning the numbers on the door. Her pace slowed when she thought she heard someone behind her. Someone was walking behind her with heavy foot steps, obviously male. Every foot fall was joined with the sound of a chain being jingled.

The whole effect made her freeze in the middle of the hall, giving her a feeling of being followed down a dark ally.

The person past her and turned his face to give her a look before continuing on. He had black and white spiky hair and he wore necklaces and earrings, fitting into her role of 'stalker hiding in the shadows' so perfectly that she almost fainted.

For a second she thought she was dead . . . but then he was gone, turning the corner of the hall. She let her heartbeat settled before she continued her search for her home room. She turned the corner and she felt her stomach turn when she saw the scarey looking boy disappear into _her_ home room.

She took a breath before going in after him.

"HASTUHARU, YOU'RE LATE!"

She squeaked as she almost ran into him, for she didn't realize he had stopped to stand in the door way.

"Opps . . ." was all the boy said. Maiko peeked around the tall boy's fame in hope of finding the teacher. She unfortunately saw the girl that already hated her sitting at a desk. She turned her head from the window to look at Maiko and her eyebrows drew together as if wondering why Maiko was here.

She heard a smacking sound as a blond boy smacked his forehead. "Haru . . ." he whisperer. "Where did you go!"

Haru shrugged.

"Well, take your seat," said the teacher indifferently. "I guess I shouldn't find this a surprise remembering last year . . ."

As Haru moved to take his seat, it suddenly exposed Maiko for the whole class to see and she blushed red.

"Oh, Kudo Maiko. . . There you are. Did you get lost?"

She nodded her head, looking at the ground. Man, she should have gotten here earlier before everyone else had their seats. Now everyone could look at her . . .

"Class," the teacher said. "Thus is Kudo Maiko. She's a new a student so be sure to welcome her into our school."

Maiko was hoping that would be the end of it and then the teacher would allow her to sit down, but to her horror, the teacher then said, "Well, tell us something about your self."

"What?" she squeaked.

"You know. Like your favorite food, color, band . . .That stuff."

"I-I Don't have a favorite thing . . ."

"Oh come on, you must have a favorite something . . ."

She didn't answer, just staring at her feet.

The teacher sighed. "Ok then, just sit down."

That went horribly, she thought as she went to find a seat.

"Welcome to Kaibara High school!" She looked up to see the blond boy smiling at her. She was surprised as the gesture and couldn't figure out why he seemed to be smiling so happy at her. She came to conclusion that there must have been a joke that she had missed, like she had so many times in the past. She walked to her desk, face redder then before and sat, keeping her gaze averted. She felt the eyes of the boy still on her, but didn't look to see his smile fade away at her rude response.

So far, this school didn't at all look like it would be enjoyable.


	3. Chapter 3

An: I have decided from now on, I will give my chapters very long names since I have yet to really find a comman theme and . .. it's just easier this way.

Somethings that I'm goin gto point out that maybe you guys won't notice, but you'll know. In Japan, the students don't go to different classes, the teachers come to them . . . well I didn't find that out until recently, so that doesn't happen. It makes sense in the manga though. That's why the're always in the same room . . . But it would have worked for my idea, so they do switch classes . . . not that anybody cares

AND The science class they are taking is AP chemestry. Because this is there last year, they have already taken normal chemestry, you can take AP chemestry . . .Well, that's what you can do in my school, but I doubt that's what they do in Japan. There's this other class . . . but I don't know what it's about, so they're taking AP chemestry. Like I said before, I dubt that you care, but I don't want to offend anyone by gett the cultur messed up . . .

Chapter 3

In Which, Shigure Gets Stepped On, Kagura Loseing Her Room, and Maiko Discovers That Her Learning Enviroment Has Changed Dramatically From Other Previous Years

One of the servants found herself tripping over something on her way to the head of the family's room.

"Shigure-san! I'm so sorry! What are you doing on the ground?"

Shigure made a noise that might have been a 'huh?' had it not been from his yawn. "What was that?"

"Why were sleeping on the floor?!"

"Oh yes . . . It's nowhere near as comfortable as you would think . . .It was kind of cold too." He got up and cracked his back. "What time is it?" He looked around. He suddenly realized that he was still wearing the clothes he wore last night and all his other clothes were in his room . . . well now it was more like Akito's room. He tried the door and was not surprised to find it locked. "Akito, love?" He was answered by a crash as something hit against the door. The servant jumped at the crash. "No, no. It's all right. I have everything under control." Shigure tried to remember what else was breakable that was in the room . . . and hoped none of it belonged to him or was important in some way.

"Shigure-san, are you having a problem with Akito-san?"

Shigure laughed. "What makes you think that? No, everything's fine. I'll simply have to borrow something of Hatori's. He's only a short walk away." He smiled to himself. "How convenient. What time is it?" he asked again.

"I-it's only 7:30."

"7:30? Heavens, that's early. Well I'm sure Hatori won't mind. It just means I have so much extra time till I have to do what I have to do." Shigure made his way to Hatori's house.

* * *

The first few classes went by without incident. History and Japanese Literature consisted mostly of reading and taking notes. Maiko was good at that. It didn't involve any talking or interacting with anyone.

She had some trouble finding each class, but had managed so far.

Unfortunately, she had no idea where she was going now. English . . . where was her English classroom?

She wasn't paying attention to where she was going, her gaze concentrating on the numbers on the doors she passed.

BAM, she ran into someone. She dropped her book bad, and all her papers flew out of it, fanning out so everyone could step on them. Her glasses fell off of one ear and dangled uselessly.

"I'm sorry!" said a voice that sounded vaguely familiar.

Her face turned red again as she readjusted her glasses. Great. Why don't we just run into everyone!

The blond boy was picking up her papers for her. She stood there awkwardly and embarrassed that someone was helping her.

"Here you go!" he said with his grand smile.

"T-Thank you." She took them with her shaky hands. She couldn't figure out why he was talking to her. He was good looking . . . in an almost pretty way to her.

He didn't have any business being so nice. No one was just nice for the heck of it.

They were still standing there, the boy still smiling at her until eventually she asked, "What?"

"Oh, oh yeah! Um, I saw your schedule on the floor . . . and well . . . we have English together."

She waited him to continue.

"Shiraki Sensi's the teacher . . . she's a good teacher."

There was another pause.

"Do you know where the classroom is?"

Maiko had to shake her head no.

"Great! Then I'll show you!" The boy went on, and she followed him, keeping a few paces away.

As they entered the classroom, the boy casually said, "Hey Mayu," to the teacher. The teacher, quite angry at the lack of respect cried out, "Hey! That's Shiraki Sensi!" Then she paused, narrowing her eyes at the boy. He smiled at her while Maiko quickly took her seat. "What are you doing here?!" cried out the teacher.

"It says on my schedule that this is my class."

"Lemme see that!" The teacher snatched the schedule out of his hands. "Damn, where are all these Sohma kids coming from?!"

Maiko was taken aback by the teacher swearing. This was supposed to be a good teacher? Was he being sarcastic?

"Whatever, sit down," she said as the bell rang. Maiko found herself sitting next to the strange blond boy. "Ok class, who here likes English?"

About three people raised their hands, but quickly brought them down when Shiraki Sensi smacked her ruler on to her desk. "Well you're all going to hate it by the time I'm done with you! Don't expect this class to be 'fun' just because I teach it!"

There was a few "aw . . ."s.

"Any questions so far?"

The blond boy raised his hand.

"Momiji?"

"How come you never call Har'ri at all anymore? I live right next to him, and the phone _never_ has you on it!"

"WHAT THE–?!" She lashed her ruler out on Momiji's desk. "THAT'S IT! FIVE HUNDRED WORD ESSAY! ALL IN ENGLISH! NOW!"

Momiji hastily pulled out paper and a pencil.

Maiko sat there, eyes wide at the ruler that seemed to be flying all over the place.

"What's the essay on?" asked Momiji.

"It's on the crap that comes out of your mouth!"

Maiko was surprised to actually see the boy start to write an essay on 'The Crap That Comes Out Of My Mouth" in English. He even seemed excited about it.

"Another thing!" the teacher said, addressing the rest of the class. "If anyone of you is ever late to my class, there sure as well be Hell to pay!" As soon as she said that, there was a tap on the door, and looking through the window, was the black and white haired boy that had scared the crap out of Maiko earlier.

The teacher threw the door open. "Another Sohma?! Momiji!"

"Yes, Ma'am?"

"How many more are they?!"

"Well there's only two more younger then us. Kisa's a first year, but Hiro's still in Middle school. You might see them in later years."

"Whatever. Well, get in here. I don't even want to know why you're late."

Instead, Momiji asked, "Where do you keep going to, Haru?"

Haru sat on the other side of Momiji. "Places," he answered.

Maiko came to the startling conclusion that he must have been doing drugs between classes. It all made sense . . .

Oh no . . . . how could she possibly learn in this environment?

There was this weird blond kid that found it amusing to make the teacher angry, a dope addict, and the teacher was just crazy!

"Haru! Guess what I get to do! I get to write an essay on crap I say!"

"Really?" He looked over at Momiji's paper. "I can't read \it."

"It has to be in English."

"Oh, can't read English."

"This is English class."

"Damn."

"Well," said the teacher. "I'm in a bad mood, so everyone gets to write an essay!"

Maiko swallowed hard as she went through her bag to get paper. She hadn't done anything wrong. She was going to hate this class.

"Wait!" The teacher cried out, slapping Momiji's desk with her ruler again. "If either of you get in trouble and I have to call your guardians, who's gonna come?"

Momiji and Haru blinked at her, not understanding the question.

"Do either of you live with Shigure?"

"No . . ." they both replied.

The teacher gave a sigh of relief. "Good."

"My mom might not show up," Haru warned.

"Yeah . . ." Momiji said. "Hatori might have to come for mine."

The teacher slammed the ruler on the desk so hard that it snapped, part of it flying up into the air and almost hitting Maiko in the head. She cover her mouth and stared wide-eyed at the teacher.

"THAT'S EVEN WORSE!" The teacher cried.

"Why?! Why is it worse!?" asked Momiji, who had also jumped at the ruler.

"WRITE YOUR ESSAY!" The teacher looked around the room. "AND I MEAN ALL OF YOU!"

Someone else raised their hand.

"What?!"

"What does the rest of the class have to write about."

"How much you hate English class."

Maiko actually didn't have too much of a problem with that one. She wrote a long, well-written essay on what she did not like about this class, and asked if she may be transferred to another English class. Hopefully the change could be done by her next tomorrow.

* * *

She didn't wake up to an alarm clock, or had any problem that morning. In fact, she had slept through the whole morning, and the afternoon sun gently on her face was what finally woke her. She stretched in her bed, wiggling her toes, before rolling on to her stomach, her cheek resting against her pillow. She opened a brown eye to see a stuffed orange cat. She smiled.

"Good morning," she said. She rolled back onto her back, staring at the ceiling, as she stretched her arms. She yawned as she sat up and crawled out of bed.

She found a robe to put on before making her way, slowly to the kitchen. Once there, she pulled out a bowl and put some cereal. The act was a ritual, and she was able to do it while thinking of other things.

She was trying to remember her dream . . . it was a good dream . . . but as she remembered, she felt sad that it was only a dream, and her happy mood slipped away.

Yeah . . .

She sat down.

She took a mouthful of cereal and chewed it thoughtfully.

"Kagura, you're up." He mother came into the kitchen. "I need to talk to you."

Kagura stopped chewing for a moment, the spoon still in her mouth as she looked at her mother. He mother sat down across from her, a somewhat forced smile on her face. "So . . ." she started.

Kagura took the spoon out of her mouth.

"Well, your father and I have been thinking . . ."

"'bout what?" Kagura pushed the cereal around with her spoon.

"We're . . . worried . . . about you."

"Mom, I've told you, I'm fine."

"Oh, but honey, It's just that you don't have a job, you're out of school, you don't have a boyfriend, so I don't know how you'll get married, you're still living in the house . . ."

"You want me out of the house!?" Kagura dropped her spoon into the bowl, making a loud sound.

"No baby! We love you here! It's just we want you to start thinking about the future . . . that's all. Get out there. Meet someone who can support you . . . or get a job to support yourself."

"But-"

"You don't have to move out."

Kagura stared at her for a moment before she sighed. "Fine, I look for a job today . . ."

"YOU WILL!?" Her mother seemed too pleased.

"Sure . . ." she picked up her spoon again.

"Oh . . . and there's another thing . . ." he mom said with a wince. "It's about moving out . . ."

Kagura's head shot up to look at her mother again.

"You don't have to move out now . . ." she said yet again. "But, you know great aunt Sophi?"

"Yeah . . ."

"And you know how she's been sick? She can't take care of herself, so she's coming to stay with us. She'll be staying in your room."

"WHAT!?" The spoon again crashed into the bowl. "WHY THE HELL CAN'T SHE STAY IN RIN'S OLD ROOM?!"

"Oh? Didn't I tell you? Rin's going to move back in with us."

"WHAT?! WHY?!"

"I don't know. She asked and I told her yes. She was actually suppose to be moving her things back here yesterday, but she never came. I don't know when actually she'll get here, but you have a choice, you can either stay with aunt Sophi, or Rin."

Kargura scrunched one eye as she gapped at her mother. Well, she sure didn't want to share a room with a sick old lady . . . But her and Rin tended not to get along well. Both would be a nightmare.

"Well . . .?"

"Fine! Rin! BUT THIS IS UNFAIR!"

"Well, eventually, you'll be moving out . . ."

Kagura let out a breath in a huff as she put the bowl on the floor for the cat to drink up the milk and stomped away to be with her room a moment longer.

* * *

Maiko went to her math class. She was slightly later then everyone else, but not very late. All the desks were pushed up together in pairs, and there were two desks that had not yet been occupied yet and she sat in one of them with a sigh.

At least she wouldn't have to sit next to anyone in this class. She could work quietly by herself.

But just before the bell rang, in came a pretty girl with long black hair.

"Kimi's here!" she cried out in a bubbly voice.

Maiko quickly looked around, and realized the seat next to her was the only left.

"And we are so happy to have you, Kimi," said the teacher with a smile.

"Really?" she giggled before skipping to the seat next to Maiko. Maiko stared straight ahead, trying to make herself unnoticeable.

"Ok, lets start with a couple of equations then," said the teacher. "Hopefully you haven't forgotten everything you ever learned."

"Aw . . ." Kimi said with a pout on her face. "But Kimi doesn't like math problems . . . does Kimi have too?"

The teacher turned to her and gave her a charming smile. "Kimi has to, because Kimi's teacher doesn't want to lose his job!" He patted Kimi's head and Maiko tried to tell herself that it didn't look wrong at all. "Now," the teacher said, losing his baby voice. "You can work with a partner. Maybe with the combination of both your minds you'll figured it out." He wrote the problem on the board and they wrote it down on their paper.

"Hey," The girl tapped Maiko on the shoulder and she turned to look at her. "Kimi doesn't remember how to do it. You must remember, right?" The girl smiled at her sweetly.

"W-well . . . it's a quadratic so you have to set it to zero . . ."

"Hey Kimi," said a boy behind them. She flipped her head back to look at him and smiled.

"Yes!?"

"Are doing anything tonight?"

"Kimi's doing nothing tonight! She was going to be _so_ lonely!"

"Great."

Maiko felt increasingly more uncomfortable as Kimi began to flirt with the boy behind them. She concentrated on the math problem. For the rest of the class, they did math problems, Kimi not giving even the least amount of effort. All she did was talk. She might have been talking to Maiko, but Maiko was too busy with the math problems. They were getting increasingly harder

At the end of the class, the teacher started calling on people for the answers.

"Kimi?"

"Yes?"

"What's the answer for number 44?"

"Um . . ."

Maiko took pity on her and slid her paper over, her finger on the answer 44.

"Fourteen . . . that thingy . . . and five!"

"That thingy is called a radical, and yes that's correct."

Kimi smiled gleefully, and Maiko rolled her eyes.

The bell rang and Kimi turned. "You should eat lunch with Kimi's friends!"

"W-what?" Maiko said, taken aback.

"They're grumpy because the President and the Vice President are gone! They say it's not that, but it is! Kimi can tell!"

"That's ok. I'm sure they don't want to be–" Kimi dragged her outside and took her to two people sitting on the ground eating their lunch. One was a somewhat short boy with light brown hair, and the other was the girl that Maiko met earlier. The one that hated her.

They were both frowning.

Oh no . . .

"Kimi's here, and she has a new friend!" she cried, presenting Maiko as if she was a grand prize. Maiko blushed and stood there awkwardly. Did this girl really want to be her friend? She seemed to pretty to actually notice a girl like her.

Unlike Kimi, the other two people didn't look up. They continued to eat their lunch with out a word.

"Aw . . . you guys are so boring!" Kimi cried out. "What if Kimi brought an elephant! Would you do anything?"

"Why an elephant? And how come you brought this girl over here?"

It didn't take long for Maiko to feel like she should be somewhere else.

"Kimi was only trying to help. Kimi thought if she brought another person, things would be more lively!"

"I DON'T WANT IT LIVELY! I'M FINE WITH THE WAY THINGS ARE!" The boy cried, getting angry so quickly that it startled Maiko.

"Oh, you're make Kimi so sad . . ."

"Stop referring to yourself in third person!"

"Kimi's going to go find something to eat!"

"You mean steal some other poor sap's lunch!"

She giggled then and skipped off, leaving Maiko still standing there. The boy took another bite of his sandwich, a scowl on his face.

Maiko's stomach growled. She was really hungry . . . she started to sit down, slowly, watching the two people closely. Any signs of them being displeased by her presence, she would leave.

How quickly Kimi had abandoned her . . .

"What's the matter with you?" snapped the boy.

"Oh! Nothing!" She sat down abruptly. He gave her a look, then continued with his lunch.

The dark-haired girl looked over her shoulder, as if to see if Kimi was still there. After that, she pulled out a letter from her bag, and carefully opened it. She touched her mouth, and a small smile formed on her lips as she read the words on the paper.

Maiko started to relax. Though the girl wasn't smiling at her, just the fact that she was and not frowning made her feel a little easier, until . . .

"WHAT'S THAT, MACHI!?" Kimi came out of nowhere, her head over the dark haired girl's shoulder. "IS THAT A LOVE LETTER?!"

"NO!" cried out the girl stuffing the letter back into her bag.

"IT IS!" Kimi made a gasp that sounded like it would go on forever. "MACHI'S CHEATING ON THE PRESIDENT WHILE HE'S IN COLLEGE!?"

"SHUT UP!" The girl, Machi cried out.

"Oh! Lemme see!" Kimi tried to make a grab for it in the bag.

"GO AWAY!" Machi pulled the book bag away from her.

"Kimi," said the boy. "It's obviously not your business."

Kimi placed a hand over her heart. "I care about the President, and it's wrong for Machi to be cheating on him! It's my duty to find out who it is and tell him."

"That's low," the boy replied.

Machi had loosened her grip on her back pack, and turned her face away. It was slightly pink and she was frowning again. When she wasn't looking, Kimi reached in and grabbed the letter, pulling it out.

"GIVE THAT BACK!" Machi cried, trying to grab it, but Kimi pulled it out of her reach, and started reading it.

"IT'S FROM THE PRESIDENT! Dear Machi, I really, really miss you. I saw something that made me think of you the other day. It was a broken window and it reminded me of that time we-" Machi tackled her, and the two girls fell to the floor, startling Maiko. Machi was muttering something dark and dirty, while Kimi was screaming her lungs out, flailing the letter like a flag.

The boy leapt up to avoid being rolled over. "GUYS! That was my lunch you're in!" Machi eventually got her letter back, and got off of Kimi. The boy glared at all three of them, though Maiko hadn't done anything, and as if suddenly realizing this, he cried, "WHY AM I HANGING OUT WITH A BUNCH OF GIRLS?!" And stomped off.

"Aw . . .Chibi-suke is mean . . ." Kimi pouted.

"Shut up," was all Machi said, putting her things back into her backpack before she left, too.

Kimi sighed. "Kimi's friends are so grumpy!" she said to Maiko.

Maiko found herself asking, "Those are your friends?" Both people didn't seem to like Kimi at all.

"Mm-hm!" she replied. "We met last year when we were in the student council. There used to be five of us."

"Oh," was all Maiko said as she started to eat her lunch. Kimi was watching her closely, a slender finger on her lips.

"Kimi has a question . . ." she said.

Maiko swallowed quickly. "Y-Yes?"

"Who _are_ you?"

* * *

One more class left. AP chemistry. Then after that, she could go home. Home! Oh, sweet home! Where there was so many less people.

She found her class room, and the teacher told her to stay standing, while he assigned seats to everyone. This was even more of a blessing since it meant that she didn't have to choose to sit next to someone.

It didn't occur to her that she'd be seeing Momiji yet again, or that he would be assigned to sit next to her.

"Hey!" he said in a voice that was too loud. "It looks like we're going to be lab partners!"

Oh good gosh . . . She forced a smile.

"By the way, I'm Momiji Sohma. And you're Maiko Kudo! I know because our homeroom teacher announced it to the class, do you remember? You must be new! That's great! Though I bet it's scary to be new, but it's also exciting because you get to meet new people! Are you excited about our science class? I love chemistry! We get to blow stuff up!"

Momiji had been talking so fast, that Maiko just stared at his mouth as he went on and on.

"Class, the person next to you will be your science partner for the rest of the year, so don't be afraid to get to know them well." said the teacher. He continued to speak, and Maiko looked through the corner of her eye to look at Momiji. His smile was so big, she thought it would keep growing till his head was like a balloon and float away.

"DON'T!" The teacher said, slamming his hands onto his desk, reminding Maiko of Shiraki Sensi. "Play with the Bunsen burner. Come on guys, let's be smart. Yes, yes I know fire is cool. But your goal is to name all the equipment that has been laid out for you. Then I want you to successfully turn on your Bunsen burner and raise your hand so I can come over and check. This is to make sure you guys know what you're doing in future. Remember to where your goggles and lab aprons."

"What if we where glasses?"

"Put the goggles over your glasses, obviously!"

"But they look funny . . . and it's uncomfortable . . ."

"Would you rather lose your eyes!"

Maiko and Momiji put on their goggles and aprons, Maiko uncomfortable aware that she must look 'funny' with both her glasses and goggles on.

"Oh no . . ." Maiko said as she stared at their set up.

"What?" asked Momiji.

"I forgot to bring a hair tie!" What if her hair caught on fire!? What if she got in trouble for having her hair down?! How could she forget that!? She had remembered everything else!

"Oh, that's ok." Said Momiji. "I'll braid your hair for you!"

"W-w-what!?" Did he just say what she thought he said?! And sure enough, she felt his fingers go through her hair as he started braiding it. Her face turned red as tomato, and not even the goggles could hide the fact.

"Momiji!" The teacher cried out. "What are you doing!? This isn't a beauty saloon!"

"She doesn't have a hair tie," he explained.

"Oh, then take this rubber band." The teacher handed him a rubber band, and Momiji wrapped it around the short braid he was able to make.

"Now!" Momiji said, picking up everything, then setting it back down again. "We need to figure out what the heck all these things are!" He picked up a glass with a wide bottom and a narrow top, looking at his reflection. He moved it around making faces and Maiko stared at him for a moment.

"T-That's a flask," she finally said.

Momiji looked at her. " . . . Right." He set it down and wrote that down. "And these are . . ." he picked up something else and began to click them.

"Those are crucible tongs."

"How do you remember them all? You didn't even have to look them up." Momiji asked as he wrote that down as well.

She began to talk faster out of her nervousness. "Well that's a test tube brush, and that's a wire gauze square with a ceramic center and that's a ceramic mat and that's a test tube support and those are test tubes and that's a scoopula and that's a stirring rod and that's a erlenmeyer flask and that's a florence flask and that's a pipet and that's a graduated cylinder, burner, funnel, aluminum weighing dish, evaporating dish, test tube clamp, clamp holder, beaker, extension clamp, beaker cover and I'm sorry but I don't know what that is. It just looks like a normal bottle to me."

Momiji blinked.

"I'm sorry!" she said in a panic.

"No wait . . . how do you spell . . . that word you said . . . and that other word . . ." Momiji said, still looking at his paper, as he tried to remember everything she said.

"What word?"

"'Do you want to write it?"

"O-okay . . ." She fumbled with the pen, before she began to write.

"Which one did you not know?"

"That one,"

"This one?"

"Yes."

Momiji picked up the bottle. "It's a bottle," he said.

"I know."

"But you said you didn't know?"

"I don't know what kind of bottle!" she snapped at Momiji and Momiji blinked at her. "I-I'm sorry . . ." She turned her face back to the paper so she wouldn't have to look at his face with his big brown innocent eyes.

"Well . . . what if you just put down bottle. Maybe it is fact, a bottle."

"That's too simple," she muttered.

"But sometimes, things are simple." Maiko wrote down bottle, just because she had nothing else better. Momiji seemed to be over joyed. "I got one," he said. "Though . . . I think you did most of them."

There was a pause.

"Can I set up the Bunsen burner?" Momiji asked.

"Sure," she passed him the burner. She was never good with that kind of thing anyway.

"Well, we plug it into the gas . . ." Momiji said as he did it. "Tell me if I'm doing it wrong. Then we open up this thing a little . . . and turn the gas on . . ."

All of a sudden a giant flame shot into the air, almost hitting Momiji's face. Maiko jumped back, hands cover her mouth as she let out a scream.

"Opps," Momiji said as he stared intently as the giant flame. "Someone must have let this thing open to wide." He turned it down and the flame slowly got smaller, till it was only a blue ghost of what it was. "There!"

The whole class were staring at the two, after seeing the flame and hearing Maiko scream. She covered her face in embarrassment.

"Maiko, are you ok?" asked Momiji. "Where you scared? It's ok, now, I fixed it. See?" He held up the Bunsen Burner to show her.

"Put that down!" she said quickly.

He put it down. They stared at each other for a moment, before Momiji hand shot up. "SENSI WE'RE DONE!"

* * *

At the end of class, the students filed out of the room. Momiji grinned at her. "The goggles left marks on your face!"

Maiki undid her braid in dismay, trying to use her hair to hide behind.

"Do I have marks on my face?!"

He did, so she said, "Maybe a little . . ."

"Cool!" He tried to look at his reflection in the window. "We must look so funny!" he laughed. He made a face at himself in the reflection again, and Maiko gave him a strange look, before turning to leave.

"See you tomorrow, Maiko!"

Maiko stopped walking at the sound of her name. She should say something in return . . . but her reaction was slow, and by the time she had spun around, he was gone.


	4. Chapter 4

AN: I know . . .it was a long time before I updated. My life sucked this year. A lot of crappy things happend to me this, BUT CHEMESRTY IS OVER!! YES My chem teacher is a . . .whatever, it's over. I think I passed too . . .

Yes . . .laugh at my grammer mistakes . . .: ( and yeah, the ending is a little bad . . .but my thought process has died. Aw . . . have to work today.

Chapter 3

In which Kagura and Rin share a room, Mayu realizes she can't walk and Hiro is, as usual, slightly unreasonable

"It's so bright in here, it makes me want to vomit." Rin stared into her old room. Half of it had Kagura's stuff in it, which consisted of multiple orange stuffed cats, and an orange bedcover.

"Well," Kagura said, "you finally showed up."

Rin made a sound of indifference as she dragged her large black suitcase into the room.

"What the hell, Rin!" Kagura cried.

"What?"

"_Why _are you still here!?"

"Why are _you _still here?"

"No, but- but why did you come back!? What's happened with Shihan's place! Why couldn't you stay there?!" Kargura whined and sobbed like a four-year-old.

Rin crossed her arms and leaned back against the wall, staring at the girl who was5 months year her senior. "First off, Kazuma's house has gone to hell. You won't believe how many people are there ALL THE TIME! I'll go crazy if I stay there."

"But why did you come _here_, of all places! You hate it here!"

"Well, I've lived here before, and it's within the estate. That's why I've come back."

"But . . . but the reason why you left was to get as far away from the estate as possible!"

"Would you just shut up and deal with it! It's just easier this way! And I'm only staying for a year. Besides, you'll move out before then."

"What makes you think that! This is _my_ house!"

"And you're 20 years old."

"You're 19! You're almost 20!"

"That's why I'm only staying a year."

"Why a year! Why don't you leave now!"

Rin glared at her.

Kagura's eyes widened as she came to the conclusion on her own. "It's because of Haru, isn't it?"

"Shut _up_!"

"You want to move back here, because it's closer to where Haru lives . . . and it'll be easier for you sneak into his house!" She gave a shudder. "And do gross stuff with him!"

"SHUT UP!"

"And you said my stuffed cats would make you vomit."

"Would you just shut your mouth!?"

"Vomit! Vomit! Vomit!" Kagura said, shaking the cat in Rin's face, before chucking a few into Rin's side of the room. "There, at least now your side's brighter."

"You'll never going to see those cats again."

Kagura hastily picked them up and held them close. "If you hurt my cats, I'm telling my mom!"

Rin rolled her eyes, and flung her suitcase into the room, before going to the window. She looked at Kagura's cutesy little cat clock for a second. "I'm going out soon."

"So you can make out with Haru?" Kagura made a face.

"Why don't you have a boyfriend?"

Kagura froze. "Cause!"

"Uh-huh. . . ." Rin threw her legs out the window and disappeared; she used the window instead of the door, out of habit.

Kagura sighed and hugged her cats.

* * *

_This . . . is awkward,_ Mayu thought as she stared at the wall that divided the Sohma estate from the rest of the world. She didn't really know why she was here. She had gotten a call from Haru's mother, who wanted to discuss his future year – in other words, to make sure he would pass her class. Mayu had told her that if Haru passed last year, there's no reason why he should fail this year, and Mrs. Sohma had laughed. Then she had invited Mayu to tea to discuss the topic further.

_Why?_

Mayu didn't know. But she would find out, wouldn't she?

Really, though, Mayu didn't want to be there. She had had a long day at school, and she'd rather be home, drinking tea by herself then have to talk about one of her students. Not that she had anything against Haru.

Also . . . just being in a fancy place like this made her feel uncomfortable. All the Sohmas that lived behind that wall. . . .

She glared at it for a second.

One of them was _Shigure_. What was the chance she'd run into him? Maybe . . . she could avoid him. If she saw him, she'd duck and cover before he could spot her. It was a good plan.

And another one of those people was Hatori.

Hatori.

What was she suppose to do if she saw Hatori?!

_Calm down Mayu . . . just . . . make polite conversation with him. That's not too hard. And don't do anything weird._ Polite conversation wasn't weird . . . unless she said something weird. What could she say that was weird?

She walked through the gates, and concentrated on finding the right house. She had scribbled the directions on a notepad so she wouldn't get lost.

She passed house after house, staring at the notepad, so she wasn't paying much attention to anything else.

"Mayu-chan?" came a voice that was all too much like Shigure's.

"AAAH!" she screamed in a panic, and whipped around too fast to face whoever was behind her. She rolled on her ankle, and with a painful cracking sound she fell to the floor. She bit her lip in pain as she glowered up to the man standing over her.

Shigure was wearing a big grin on his face, as if he just couldn't believe his luck. He had a walking stick with him that he was tapping on the stone ground excitedly. "Mayu-chan, it _is _you! Oh what are you doing here? Did you come all this way just to see me?!"

"I . . . will . . . _murder_ . . . you . . ." Mayu said between her clenched teeth, as she tried to take off her shoe. It wasn't easy – her foot was already starting to swell, and it hurt like crazy.

"Oh dear," said Shigure, folding his hands over the head of the walking stick and resting his chin on it. "Have you hurt yourself?"

Mayu ignored him.

Shigure poked her foot with the walking stick.

"EEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKK!! HOLY SHI–" she bit her lip. "IF MY ANKLE DIDN'T HURT LIKE HELL YOU'D BE DEAD NOW!" She peeled away her sock to look at her purple ankle.

"GOOD HEAVENS! YOU'RE INJURED! DO NOT WORRY, MAYU-CHAN! GURE-CHAN WILL RESCUE YOU!" He suddenly picked her up, one arm beneath her knees, while the other supported her back. Mayu screamed again.

"PUT ME DOWN!"

"You can count on me, Mayu-chan!" Shigure said with a serious face that made Mayu want to smack him. "I will carry you to the ends of the earth, if it meant you could walk again! TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH!" Shigure cried as he started to run. Mayu continued to scream, clinging to his neck for fear that he would drop her. Once he stumbled, and nearly did. "Mayu dear, you are _terribly_ heavy! I don't think I'll make it to the end of the street, let alone to the ends of the earth! Have you actually been _gaining_ weight?"

Mayu slapped him across the face, which made him stumble further, and that made her cling to him and scream some more. "PUT ME DOWN YOU IDIOT!"

"But you can't walk by yourself. . . ."

"I DON'T CARE! I'LL CRAWL! JUST PUT ME DOWN!" Shigure, ignoring her completely, stopped at a house and rang the doorbell with his elbow.

The door opened, and Hatori stared at them with a completely blank expression.

Mayu's eyes went wide.

"Tori-kun! I have stumbled upon a damsel in distress and have rushed her to the nearest help possible! Here you go!" He handed Mayu to Hatori, who wasn't expecting it, and wrapped his arms around her in a hurry so that he wouldn't drop her, letting our a surprised breath.

Mayu's heart started to pound. She had never, _ever_ been this close to Hatori before. He was actually holding her! She could feel his heart in his chest up against her shoulder.

Shigure barged into the house, pushing Hatori and Mayu out of his way. "Hasn't it been an exciting day? I was just returning from sneaking back into my home to get some underwear – since Hatori won't let me borrow his – and I stumble upon May-chan!"

"Wh-what," Mayu was amazed that Hatori seemed to stutter for a moment, "did you do to her?!"

"_I_," Shigure said, placing a hand on his chest. "Rescued her, by putting her in your capable hands! Quite literally, I must add. Oh, that's kind of funny."

Once Shigure said that, Hatori hurriedly went over to a chair, and ever so gently set her down. "Are you ok?" Hatori asked.

"Uh-huh . . . " Mayu said in an embarrassingly dreamy voice before she shook her head to get out of it.

"But you're hurt. . . ." he said, looking down at her purple ankle.

"It's fine. I have to –" She stopped and sucked in her breath as Hatori gently lifted her leg.

"Did that hurt?"

"No!"

Shigure snickered and Mayu glared at him.

Hatori ignored Shigure, pushing up her pant leg. Her face turned beet-red and she ripped her leg away from him.

"I'm sorry!" Hatori said, just as embarrassed as her. Shigure was laughing hysterically in the kitchen. The two ignored him.

"No, it's just that I'm a little jumpy, you know? It doesn't really hurt or anything."

"Well . . . um, do you mind then?"

"Of course not, go ahead!"

Hatori pushed up the pant leg again. "That's a lovely color," he said examining the bruise.

She laughed. That was joke right? Oh, she sounded retarded . . .

"What exactly were you doing?"

Shigure burst into the room, laughing. "That's the best part, Tori-kun! She was just walking! Oh, Mayu-chan! What will we do with you? Can't even walk with out hurting yourself!"

Mayu flung a pillow at Shigure's face.

"I want to know exactly where it hurts. So I want you to tell me, ok?" Hatori looked into Mayu's eyes.

She nodded.

Hatori moves his fingers over Mayu's ankel.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!! THAT HURTS!!"

"I'm sorry!"

"It's ok!" she said in a tight voice. "You're the doctor."

"You've broken your ankle."

"No shit!"

Hatori looked up in surprise.

"I'm sorry . . ." Mayu took a breath. "Just in pain."

"I'm pretty sure you've broken your tibia . . .maybe the fibula. It's hard to tell with all the swelling. What were you doing again? Just walking?"

Mayu shrugged and grinned through her pain.

"We're going to need to take an X-ray."

"A what? How much is that going to be?! You know, it doesn't hurt that much, maybe I'm fine," she lied.

"Oh, it's for a friend. It won't be anything. And you are not fine. The only problem is that I don't have an X-ray machine handy at my house. Can you walk at all?"

"Sure I can!" She pushed herself off the chair, standing on one foot. "Where am I going?" Suddenly, she fell forward and Hatori's arms were around her waist.

"Be carful." He moved his hands onto her hips to keep her straight.

She panicked and squirmed, trying to get away from his closeness, but she couldn't move, so all she winded up doing was flailing her arms around in circles.

Shigure took one of her arms. "Here, both of us can support her weight till we get to the X-ray room . . . since she is awfully heavy, Tori-kun. I wouldn't want you to hurt your back."

Mayu would have slapped him or kicked him or_ something,_ if all her limbs weren't being occupied.

As they started the slow walk, Shigure and Hatori on either side of her, Shigure asked, "So Mayu-chan . . . what brings you here to the Sohma Estate . . . it couldn't be only to break your ankle."

Mayu winced a little before she spoke. "I was suppose to meet one of my student's mother . . ."

"Which student?"

"Haru . . ."

"Haru? He's in your class now?"

"Dammit!" she hissed, partly because of the pain, and partly because she just told Shigure that a Sohma was in one of her classes again.

"We're almost there," Hatori said in his low voice.

She turned her gaze to his feet, walking slowly beside her limping ones. She couldn't help but let her heart flutter.

* * *

"How . . . did you manage to get three breaks, one in the tibia and two in the fibula, simply by walking?" Hatori asked as he held the X-rays in his hands. He'd put them up to the light, and then away, as if that would change the picture.

Mayu was trying to figure that one out too. "Maybe I have weak bones . . ."

"Hmm . . . do you get enough calcium? It's important for a woman, and of one of your size . . ." Hatori's voice trailed away as he realized what he said, "I mean in that . . . . you're tall, so your bones have to hold more weight, not in that you're overweight or anything, but you have pretty large bone to hold your weight . . .no that's – you need more calcium," Hatori finished.

Mayu blinked at him.

Shigure laughed. "Beautifully said."

"I'm tired," Hatori said defensively.

"From carrying all of that weight? And I was helping you!"

"Are you saying I'm fat?!"

"NO!" Hatori cried out. "Not at all!"

She bit her lip, thinking.

"We need to set the bones back into position . . ."

"Uh-huh . . ."

"And since this an ankle and more than one break, it will be difficult without surgery."

"WHAT!? SURGERY!?"

"There's no other way to be able to set the bone back in place. It's not an injury you can get away with just putting a brace on."

"No, no, no. I can't have surgery! I don't have the money! I'm a teacher! I need to go to my job!"

"Oh brilliant! Do not worry Mayu-chan, I'm sure they'll send a substitute while you are recovering from your surgery. Oh, but how are you going to take care of yourself . . . you live alone . . .hmm."

Hatori stood silently, watching Shigure make an expression of exaggerated thoughtfulness. Mayu glared at him, grinding her teeth. This was his fault! He was the reason why she fell!

"I have an idea! Why don't you stay with Hatori! He is a doctor. He'd be able to take care of you better than anyone else, I'm sure!"

"You can just invite people to stay at other people's houses!" Mayu cried out.

"Well, it obviously can't be mine . . . or maybe you don't know this, Mayu-chan, but I've been kick out of my own home."

"It doesn't matter! I'm staying in my apartment!"

"But how will you be able to move around with a big cast on your leg? Maybe you won't even be able to walk! What if you need a wheelchair!? You wouldn't be able to reach your cabinets! You'll starve! Oh, how tragic!"

"I can figure something out! I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself! You can't expect Hatori to take time out of his busy life to babysit me! I'm sure he has a million other things to do!"

"Actually," Hatori spoke up, turning his gaze to the X-ray, as if studying them was helping him speak, "it wouldn't be any trouble . . . for you to stay here. It may even be easier . . . I wouldn't have to come get you to check on your ankle if you're already here."

"Oh . . . well then . . ." Mayu bit her lip, blushing slightly. "If it would be easier . . .But still, I don't think I would be able to pay for a surgery!"

"Oh." Shigure waved his hand. "I'm sure Akito will pay for it."

"Akito? Who?"

"I'm pretty sure she likes Hatori more than me right now. For Hatori, she would do it."

"You mean for Shiraki-san . . ." Hatori said.

"Yes, yes! Of course!"

"Shall we get your things then?" Hatori asked.

* * *

"We're going to get you all clean, yes we are!" Hiro said in a baby voice as he unfastened his younger sister's diaper. "Ew . . .you got a stinkies!" Hinata giggled. "Stinkies are going to go BYE-BYE! Can you say bye-bye? BYE-BYE!"

"Bye-bye . . ."

Hiro jumped at the unexpected voice, his arms flying out, knocking over the baby powder. "How long have you been standing there?!"

"Dunno," Haru shrugged, picking up the baby powder.

"What are you even doing here? This isn't your house! Don't tell me you got lost."

"I wanted to make sure Kisa got here from school safely." Kisa stuck her head out from behind Haru.

"Is this a bad time?" she asked.

"KISA! NO OF COURSE NOT!" Hiro accidently knocked over the baby powder yet again, and Haru picked it up a second time.

"Because I can come back at another time if you're busy now . . ."

"No, no, no . . ." Hiro hurriedly finished changing Hinata's diaper. "I'm almost done." He picked up Hinata and stomped past Haru and Kisa out if the room. "Mom! MOM!"

"Over here, honey!" His mother pranced over to him. He shoved the baby into her arms, but gently.

"Why didn't you tell me people were here?!"

"Oh, well Haru and Kisa are here!" she said happily.

Haru and Kisa followed Hiro out of the room. "I'm going," said Haru.

"Oh really?" pouted Hiro's mother. "You don't want something to eat first?"

"That's ok, oba-san. Don't want to be late." Haru left as quickly as he had come.

"What about you, Kisa? You must be starving!" Satsuki gave Hiro back his sister and busied herself in the kitchen. Kisa and Hiro sat at the table, him looking away with indifference, and Kisa staring at him shyly. Maybe she should have come at a different time . . .

"How was your fist day of highschool Kisa? It must have be exciting! I can't believe you're already in highschool! I can't even picture Hiro in highschool! He'll always be my wittle little boy!"

Hiro glared at his mother.

"Um . . . it was ok," Kisa mumbled. "I don't know a lot of people . . . except Haru and Momiji of course . . . I . . ." her voice faded into a whisper and Hiro turned his gaze at her worriedly.

"Don't worry Kisa-chan!" Satsuki said as she placed a plate of snacks in front of Kisa. "I'm sure you'll make friends. It doesn't always happen on the first day."

"Yes, I guess so."

Hiro wordlessly placed his free hand over Kisa's, and gave her a caring look. She met his gaze, trying to show him how much that meant to her.

The moment was broken as Satsuki suddenly hit her hands against the table. "You should join a club, Kisa-chan!"

"Careful Mom! You might startle Hinata!" Hiro cried out, though the movement started him and Hinata could have cared less.

"But it's the perfect way for Kisa to make friends!"

"What would Kisa join a club for?"

"Well I don't know. It doesn't matter," said Satsuki.

"Doesn't matter? Of course it matters!

"How so?"

"I don't know! What if she accidently joins some gangster club?"

"A gangster club? I didn't think they had those at the school."

"I mean something like that. Obviously the school wouldn't allow a club like that, but we don't know the kind of people that will be in these clubs. What if she accidently winds up in the wrong crowd? Did you know this is a public school? This school has _boys_ in it!"

Satsuki and Kisa stared at Hiro, even Hinata blinked up at her older brother.

Suddenly Satsuki turned to Kisa with glee. "Maybe you'll meet a really cute boy!"

"Mom!"

"What? Kisa is _adorable!_ She's sure to have boys following her around in no time!"

Kisa blushed.

"EVEN MORE REASON FOR HER NOT TO JOIN A CLUB!"

"You sound like her father, Hiro. It's Kisa's decision in if she joins a club or not. What do you think Kisa?"

"Um . . well . . .I have to think about it . . ."

"Think about it as long as you want. Don't let Hiro bully you around."

Hiro glared at his mother.

"He just mad because you're in highschool, and he's not."

"MOM! ENOUGH!"


	5. Chapter 5

An: So I I've liked . . .not updated in awhile . . .because . . .of stuff. I finished a story on Fictionpress! I should put a link on my profile. I wonder why I haven't done that.

And here's more fluff to eat too much of, and make you sick . . .but it tastes good.

Chapter 5

In Which Arisa Needs a Place to Stay, Kagura Gets a Job, and Shigure Gets Arrested

Arisa smiled to herself as she listened to the priest's words. She'd never been much into churches before -- or men in dresses -- but the look on her father's face was good. Better than the best _tororo soba_ good. Very near the best thing in the world good. This was what her father needed. This was the best thing that could happen to him.

Arisa liked Suki. She'd be a good wife for her father. She could make him laugh, and she was a hard worker. It gave Arisa the reassurance that when she moved out, there would be someone to take care of him.

She looked at the guests sitting before them. There weren't many. In fact, there were hardly any at all. What was the matter? Did their family not have any friends!? She guessed not. The only people there were a few members of Suki's family . . . and Saki. She was sitting by herself, dressed in black as usual. She looked more like she was attending a funeral instead of a wedding.

Tohru would have been there, if Arisa had known where to send an invitation. She sighed; it couldn't be helped. She missed Tohru so much, but stupid Carrot Top had to steal her away. When they came back she was gonna . . .

Her father kissed the bride.

Well, at least her father was happy. They had wanted a small wedding, anyway. Less money.

* * *

"W-who was that one girl . . . the one in black . . .?" Suki asked, face pink from too much wine. Her father giggled along with his new wife.

Arisa sighed. "That was Saki Hanajma," she said for the fifth time.

"She was . . . _hilarious!_" Both of them burst into laughter. Arisa started to regret letting them drink that much. She was usually very strict when it came to her father's drinking, but she thought . . . just this one time.

At least she was driving them home. She heard Suki giggle and looking through the mirror, she saw her father practically attack Suki in the back seat of the car. "Hey, dad!" she cried. "Would you cool it back there? I'm still here, you know?"

"Right . . . the driver's still here," he said.

"You're _daughter's_ still here!" corrected Arisa.

"Right . . . the daughter driver."

Arisa rolled her eyes. She'd just get them home and . . . man, she hoped they wouldn't be too loud. She didn't have another place to stay tonight.

More noises came from the back seat. She tried to ignore them by thinking about what she had to do tomorrow. She had to return the car to whoever it belonged to -- she had borrowed it because she didn't trust bringing her father and his wife home on public transportation -- she had to clean the house -- man, she should have done that before the wedding -- and go to work. After work . . . hmm, maybe she could call someone.

They parked at the apartment. "Okay lovebirds, we're here," Arisa said as she climbed out of the car. The back door slammed opened and her dad came out, holding Suki in his arms. He started to wobble towards the apartment. "Um . . . Dad? I don't know if that's a good idea."

"Whaddya mean?! Your daddy's strong enough. . . ." He tipped a little, and Suki burst out laughing.

"Oh good God," muttered Arisa. She looked around to make sure no one else was around and followed them. She kept a good distance, afraid that if they _did_ fall, they'd land on her.

She convinced them to take the elevator up to their floor instead of the stairs, but that just meant that she had to share an enclosed space with the two as they made out. "Hey, can you guys cut it out!?" she cried, feeling like the adult in this family. "We're not even in the room yet!"

She was moving out as soon as possible. Maybe _that_ should be the first thing on tomorrow's "to-do" list.

They arrived at their floor, and her father insisted on carrying Suki the rest of the way there. Once they arrived at their room, Arisa sighed with relief. Mission accomplished.

She went to her bedroom and closed the door, collapsing on her bed. She pulled a pillow over her head and fell asleep.

She woke up to her cell phone ringing. She pushed herself off her bed. It was harder than she anticipated. She looked around bleary-eyed, trying to find where the hell her phone could possibly be. She eventually found it under a pile of clothes.

"Hello?" she said, rubbing her eyes and clearing her throat.

"Hello," replied a way-too-perky voice. Of course, everyone sounded too perky when she was sleepy.

"K . . . Kureno?" She ran her free hand through her hair. Why was he calling her so early in the morning?

"I wanted to congratulate you on your father getting married. I'm sorry I couldn't be there."

She yawned. "Ah . . . thanks. You had a need to tell me that _now?"_

"Well, I wanted to catch you before you got to work."

"Well, you have a few more hours . . ." she said, walking back to the bed and falling back down on to it.

"A few hours? I thought you started work at noon. Aren't you almost there already?"

"WHAT!?" She looked at the clock. 11:55.

"Dammit!" She started to go through her room, trying to find her uniform. Unearthing it from under a pile of (hopefully clean) laundry, she tried to pull off her shirt and hold the phone to her ear at the same time. "I'm gonna be late!"

"Oh, well . . . should I hang up, then?"

"Um . . ." She didn't want him to hang up. Kureno hardly ever called her. "Yeah, I guess. Talk to you later?"

"Sure."

"Today?"

There was a pause. "Sure."

"Don't forget," she said, before saying goodbye and hanging up.

* * *

After the first day, Maiko was able to find her classes much better and was usually the first one to each class. Since she still didn't have friends, it wasn't like she was busy talking to anyone between.

She walked into her English class, head down, afraid to make eye contact with Shiraki Sensi, but when she took her seat and looked up, it wasn't the blonde woman she saw. . . .

There was a man sitting at Shiraki Sensi's desk, a very charming smile on his handsome face. His black hair was gelled back, though a few strands still fell into his mischievous eyes.

"Well, well . . . what a beautiful little girl to stumble into my classroom! I didn't think I'd be so lucky."

_OH GOD! HER?! HE COULDN'T BE TALKING TO HER! BEAUTIFUL!? YEAH RIGHT!_

She looked around. There wasn't anyone else here.

There was nothing else to it. He must be a pervert who didn't care if the girl was beautiful.

And she was _alone!_ She whimpered when he got up. He placed his hands on top of her desk and peered at her. "And what's the pretty girl's name? Hmm?"

She opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. What could she do? This had never happened to her before!

"Shii-chan!" Momiji stumbled into the room. Maiko's heart jumped up to her throat. She had never been so happy to see someone before! "What are you doing here?"

"Momitchi! So you're in Shiraki-sensei's class, too?"

"Yep!"

Maiko looked at the man and back at Momiji. Did they know each other!? This man was just about to rape her and here Momiji was, making conversation with him.

"Where is Mayu-chan, anyway?"

The man sighed. "I'm sorry to say that poor Mayu-chan-sensei has broken her ankle, but I have taken the opportunity to be her substitute!"

A few more students walked into the room, giving the dark haired man a sideways glance. "I will direct my passions and my love for literature into expanding your young minds!" He rushed to the board, picked up a piece of chalk, and wrote "English" in the most elaborate handwriting Maiko had ever seen. The single flowery word took up the whole board. "Unfortunately, class, English isn't my first language, and I most certainly never use it, so the word 'English' may be the only word I can teach you."

The class gave the man dumb looks.

"But do not fear! I have everything under control, and I reassure you that there will be indeed lots of learning. Now please take out your textbooks and open to the first page."

Maiko did so, glancing around at everyone else. She wondered if Shiraki-sensei had read her essay about switching her to a different English class. She must have been so upset that she just decided to have a teacher replace her instead of moving Maiko. Maiko couldn't say this new teacher was much better.

Someone raised their hand.

"Yes?" the teacher answered.

"What's your name?"

"Oh I'm sorry! I never did introduce myself! You can call me Sohma-sensei!"

Oh . . . so he was related to Momiji. That's how they knew each other.

That couldn't be a good sign.

The teacher looked at his copy of the textbook and scratched his head. "Now Momiji, can you understand what that says? Because I haven't got a clue."

"How come they sent in a teacher who doesn't know English to teach English?" someone cried out.

"You are absolutely right! This shouldn't be English class! This should be just a literature class!" He shut his book. "Books for everyone!" He took out his bag and starting pulling books out, handing them out to the class.

Maiko looked at her book: _Summer-Colored Sigh__._ It wasn't anything she had ever heard of before, and she had read a good number of books in her lifetime.

_"__Heartthrob__?_ What kind of books are these?" another person asked.

"These, my friend, are classics! That is some quality work in your hands right there. So class, I want you to use the rest of the time we have together to indulge into the pages of your novel. Begin!"

Maiko started reading her book. It was a sappy romance, and though she would never admit it, Maiko really liked reading sappy love stories. The only thing Maiko felt uncomfortable reading was the occasional sex scene. Usually Maiko would just skim over that part and continue her merry little way reading, but unfortunately in this book, the sex scene was almost the entire book.

Maiko face turned pink and her eyes widened as she flipped through the pages. She didn't know someone was capable of getting into that position!

She looked at Momiji who was reading a different book. There was a grin on his face and Maiko wondered if his book was much different than hers. She didn't want to read any more of this disturbing book. She hoped the teacher wouldn't test them on what they'd read. How could she ever put anything about the book into words?

She looked at the clock. There was still a lot of time of this class left. She could just pretend to read, but even when she only directed her eyes at the book to look like she was reading, she still caught words on the pages that she really rather not have read.

_He cupped her left breast, wondering how something could be so soft, before he guided it to his mou – _Maiko shut the book so fast and so loudly that everyone looked at her.

"Is there a problem . . . um, sorry, I don't know you name!" The teacher laughed.

There was a knock a the door and the principal -- quite angry looking -- could be seen from the door window. The teacher got up to answer the door.

"WHAT THE HELL IS –" The principal stopped because at that moment, Haru had finally arrived, and he couldn't get through the doorway with both Shigure and the principal in the way.

"Excuse me," Haru said as he wiggled between the two men.

"Haru! Welcome to my class!" Shigure said.

"_Your_ class?! Who are you!" cried out the principal. "Where's Shiraki Sensi?!"

"The poor woman has broken her ankle and is staying at my cousin's house. She's a friend of mine and I so graciously accepted to be her substitute!"

"Substitutes have to go through the school board and be verified by _me_. I have no idea who you are, but you are certainly _not_ the man that was verified to me for Shiraki-sensei's substitute, for he just called to say he's sick and couldn't make it! I have every right to arrest you!"

"Wha'd I miss?" Haru asked Momiji.

"I think Shii-chan's getting arrested."

"That's a surprise." He sounded sarcastic, and Maiko wondered if this man had been arrested before.

"Well, then," Shigure said to the class, "it appears that I must leave you early." He laughed like he was enjoying this whole ordeal. "But as a farewell present, I'm letting you keep all my books! I will miss you, class! Feel free to talk to your peers about your books."

"You just didn't come here to advertise your books, did you, sensei?" Haru asked.

The man laughed. "Of _course_ not!"

"You come with me!" The principal grabbed the man's arm and dragged him out of the room. The principal looked at the class. "Don't you kids leave. A substitute will be here shortly."

* * *

"You good in math?" the large man asked.

"Um . . . I guess so . . ." Kagura looked at the man, and then to the cash register.

He rolled his eyes. "You know the difference between cash, charge, and check?"

"Of course!"

"Can you count change in your head?"

"Sure."

"Okay, you're on cashier. If you mess up, you get downgraded to bag lady."

_Oh no, not bag lady,_ Kagura thought sarcastically.

"And if you mess up on that, your _fired!_"

"Okay," Kagura squeaked.

"Regina!" A girl with spiked blonde hair, a noise piercing and a giant wad of chewing gum in her mouth walked over. "Show the new girl how to work the cash register."

"Sure, whatever." The man walked away. The girl glared at Kagura, though it didn't seem like she was especially angry. It just looked like that was her natural facial expression. She sighed. "You take the product and scan it so it beeps."

"Okay," Kagura said, trying to sound friendly, but Regina didn't seem to notice.

"Then the price pops up here. You keep scanning and it adds up the total. If the customer has a coupon or something, you hit these buttons over here to divide the percent in. This button opens the sucker out. Make sure you count what's in there to make sure it's the right amount. You also have to request verification of customers if they're trying to buy alcohol or tobacco products. The boss hits you really hard if you don't remember that one. And they need identification when using checks or credit. You got all that?"

"Yeah. Sounds pretty easy."

Regina laughed and put a hand on Kagura's shoulder. "Yeah, good luck." She walked away.

Once the store opened, Kagura was able to meet her first customer. "Good morning," she said as the older woman started to put her purchases on the counter.

The woman looked up and grunted before she continued unloading her bag.

Kagura hesitantly took the first item – a carton of orange juice -- and tried to scan it, but the beep didn't go off. She tried a couple more times.

"Can we hurry it up, here? I haven't got all day. I have a lot of people to feed back home!"

"Oh yes! I'm sorry!" She tried harder, pressing the carton so hard that she bent the corners in. _WELL GODDAMMIT! _No . . . she mustn't become angry. She smiled at the woman. The woman glared at her before snatching the orange juice out of Kagura's hand and scanning it herself. "Oh . . . um . . . I'm –"

"I'm not paying for this! The carton is all dented in!"

"Well, I'm sure the juice is still fine –"

"It wasn't like that when I picked it up, either! I made sure to get a carton that was intact!"

"Um, you could get another one –"

"I'm not walking all the way over there! I have arthritis and I already have to cart my ass all over this sorry store!"

"I'll go get it!" Kagura scampered away, more to be away from the woman than to actually be helpful.

Her heels clicked on the tile floor as she tried to walk fast, but the shoes she was wearing wouldn't let her take long strides. She wasn't exactly sure were the orange juice was, either, and it took her a while to find it.

When she came back there was already a very long line, and when she got to the front, the upset woman was complaining to her boss. This was not good. . . .

"KAGURA!"

"Yes?"

"Where were you!? How come you weren't at the cash register!?"

Kagura held up the orange juice. "I was –"

"YOU CAN NEVER LEAVE THE CASH REGISTER UNATTENDED!"

"I'm sorry, but –"

"BAG DUTY! REGINA!"

Kagura was downgraded to bag duty while Regina worked the cash register.

"Stupid old lady . . . why couldn't she get her own freaking orange juice!" Kagura muttered as she stuffed someone's purchases into a bag.

"You gotta watch out for the customers," Reina explained after one just left. "They can be brutal."

Somewhere in the line, some kid was screaming his lungs out. "MOMMA! I WANT POP-POP SNAPPERS!"

"Hey listen, I don't have a break in awhile and I really have to go to the bathroom. You think you can handle the cashier and bag duty by yourself?" Regina asked.

"Yeah. It should give me a chance to redeem myself."

"'Kay." Regina left.

A young man was next in line, giving Kagura a charming smile. "You're a new one, cutie."

"Yep." She tried to smile, but couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes.

The man heaved a 50-pound bag of dog food onto the counter, blocking Kagura's view of him.

Kaguru stared at the bag for a moment. Where the heck was she suppose to scan this?! "You have dogs or something?"

"_Oh_ yeah. We're like a pack back at home."

Kagura wrapped her arms around the bag and was able to scan it, which was surprisingly easier than the stupid orange juice was. It wasn't that big. She could fit it in a bag, though it would have to have its own. She wrapped her arms around it and was about to lift it again.

"Oh, I can do that," said the man.

"No, it's okay. I have it." She didn't realize that the man had taken the bag anyway, for she couldn't see past it. She let our a cry when the dog food was pulled away from her, though she hadn't let go of it. She felt herself being dragged over the counter. The bag finally gave, dog food spilling all over the floor. Kagura fell the rest of the way over the counter, having barely enough time to cover her face before she hit the floor.

"Are you okay?! I didn't expect such a little lady to have such a grip on that!"

She shook her head a little as she tried to push herself out. All the pieces of dog food dug into the palms of her hands and her knees.

The kid in line that wanted the Pop Pop Snappers started laughing hysterically at her. Kagura glared at him. Stupid little kid. . . . She stuck her tongue out at him. He retaliated by throwing one of his Snappers at her.

Kagura screamed, trying to get up and away from them, but she fell back down again, slipping on the dog food with her heeled boots. The kid started laughing again.

"WHY YOU LITTLE FREAK!" She managed to get up and took a step towards the kid. The boy hid behind his mother in terror. The mother looked at Kagura with wide eyes.

"KAGURA! WHAT'S GOING ON!?"

"HE JUST THREW A POP-POP SNAPPER AT ME!"

"NEVER YELL AT THE CUSTOMER! WHY IS THERE DOG FOOD EVERYWHERE!?"

Kagura stood there silently as it sunk in how much trouble she actually was in.

"REGINA! WHERE IS REGINA!? SHE'S SUPPOSE TO BE HERE! YOU'RE ON BAG DUTY!" The boss looked at the customers. "Don't worry, both of you will get discounts on everything you purchase. Kagura, this is coming out of your paycheck!"

Kagura wasn't fired. The boss took pity on her, since it was her first day, but every mistake she made afterwards came out of her paycheck.

_Oh yeah . . ._ Kagura could _so _support herself in a year.

* * *

As soon as her shift ended, and not a second after, her cell phone rang. Arisa picked it up, her heart racing. It had to be him!

"Hello?"

"Guess where I am?"

Arisa grinned. "Hmm . . . In the shower?"

There was a pause, as if he might have been embarrassed at the comment. "No! Go outside."

Arisa grabbed her things and said a quick goodbye to her boss before leaving. "Walk three blocks and turn onto the next street."

"Is this like some kinda treasure hunt?" she asked.

"Something like that."

"Is there gonna be a prize at the end?"

"Of course."

"Should I watch out for pirates?"

"Oh yes. They're everywhere in Japan."

"I'll keep an eye out for them. I have a can of pepper spray in my pocket." Arisa followed Kureno's directions until she came to a bridge crossing a busy road. She could see a man standing next to the rail, talking into a cell phone. "Hold on, Kureno, there's this creep that's staring at me. I think he might be a pirate."

"Why don't you get closer so you can find out?"

"I have to get my pepper spray out first!" She wiggled it out of her pocket before continuing up the path.

Kureno smiled at her when she was a foot away, and shut his phone. "Hey."

"Um, excuse me! I'm on the _phone_!" She held up her pepper spray.

He laughed at her exaggerated annoyance as she shut her phone. "He hung up on me!"

She flung her arms around his neck. Surprised, he wrapped one arm around her, the other holding a cane he always walked with.

"I've missed you . . ." she murmured into his neck.

Carefully, he rested his cane against the rail of the bridge, and wrapped his other arm around her. Her form seemed to fit so perfectly with his. The embrace lasted a little longer than one exchanged between close friends.

They were more than friends . . . but not quite lovers. Not yet, anyway. There was the constant flirting between them, but none of them ever said those three words. It wasn't yet official.

There was something holding him back still.

Arisa pulled away. "Hey, you're standing all by yourself. What a big boy!"

Kureno shook his head while he took his cane. "So what has my Yankee been up to?" Kureno asked as they leaned up against the rail, watching the horizon.

Arisa stretched her arms over her head. "I'm moving out."

"Really?"

"Yep. I _can't_ live with my dad forever. Especially since he's married an all. It's _so_ awkward!"

Kureno chuckled. "I bet it is."

"Besides, my dad and her need some alone time, you know?"

"So where will you be living now?"

"I don't know. I'm sure Tohru would have given me a place to stay -- she's always so willing to help in any way possible -- but ever since she left with Kyo, I haven't heard from her at all."

"Oh."

"And I would have stayed with my friend, Hana-chan, but she's staying with this guy now . . ."

Kureno raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, nothing like _that_. She works for him or something. Actually, I'm not really sure what she's doing there. She's always really vague when she talks about it. The guy's name is Kazuma or something. He's related to you, right?"

"Kazuma? Oh yes. He's Kyo's adoptive father."

"Yeah, well anyway. I guess I could try renting an apartment or something. Hopefully I can find one."

"You . . . could stay with me, if you can't find an apartment."

Arisa turned and grinned at him. "I thought you were _never _going to ask!"

"Your father isn't going to mind, is he?"

"Naw, why would he?"

"You living with an older man?"

She made a dismissive noise. "Pfft. We're both mature adults. It's fine!"

They were silent for a moment, staring at the sun as it disappeared behind the city. Arisa's head was resting on the rail; she rolled it over to watch Kureno's profile. "You gonna kiss me or what?"

Kureno shook his head as if waking up from a day dream. "I'm sorry, I was waiting for the perfect moment. I expected us to keep talking until the sun was at the exact position in the sky that it would hit the top of your hair to make it shine. Then I was going to kiss you. It was supposed to be romantic."

Arisa laughed. "You put a lot of thought into that, didn't you?" It was such a strange thing, but it warmed Arisa's heart that he thought it up.

Kureno looked at the horizon. "Oh damn. We just missed it."

"Well you better hurry up, then."

He leaned over and pressed his lips to Arisa's for a moment, then pulled back.

Arisa smiled. "That was all right."

"Only all right?"

"Only all right."

Kureno turned his attention back to the sun. "All right."

"You better do it again if you want to make it better."

He grinned at her and kissed her again. He gasped when Arisa pushed harder against his lips, making the kiss a little deeper. He let her, guiltily enjoying himself as she brought her hands up to his head, her fingernails in his hair.

"Okay, how was that one?" Arisa asked.

"I guess that was a little better."

"Can I move in tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow? Already?"

"I don't want to have to spend one more day in that house!"

Kurneno laughed. "Okay."

* * *

"TORI-KUN!" Shigure flung his arms around Hatori. "YOU CAME TO GET ME?! AND YOU SAID YOU WOULDN'T BAIL ME OUT OF JAIL!"

"Get off of me!" Hatori pushed Shigure away. "I said I wouldn't defend you for killing someone."

"But you'll bail me out of jail for impersonating a teacher!?" Shigure said, tears of gratitude in his eyes.

Hatori rubbed his face hard. "I'm trying to figure out _exactly_ what is wrong with you."

"Oh, that's quite easy to figure out. I'm selfish. I went to Kaibara High School so I could see the _adorable_ high school girls in their _adorable_ high school uniforms and also to advertise my books. Since I've stopped writing, I have to have people discover what's already out there –"

"Would you quit rambling so we can go? You're stay at my house tonight. Hopefully if I keep a eye on you, you won't get into any more trouble."

"Really!? Tori-kun is letting me stay at his place?"

"You better behave. I don't want you bothering Shiraki-san at all."

"Oh yes! She's staying there, too! Oh, this is going to be so much fun! Like a slumber party!"

"You're going to have to resolve things with Akito before I murder you . . ." Hatori muttered before they left the police station.


End file.
